This Article Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: 1079063209338491v1 21/3/335    most recent References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Clift, R. J. W. Articles by Gretton, H. M. PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Clift, R. J. W. Articles by Gretton, H. M. Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Discriminative and Predictive Validity of the Penile Plethysmograph in Adolescent Sex Offenders

Youth Forensic Psychiatric Services, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada, Robert.Clift{at}gov.bc.ca

Gordana Rajlic

Youth Forensic Psychiatric Services, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada

Heather M. Gretton

Youth Forensic Psychiatric Services, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada

The current study addresses the discriminative and predictive validity of the penile plethysmograph (PPG) in a sample of 132 male adolescent sex offenders who were admitted to a sex offender treatment program. The subjects were assessed pretreatment and posttreatment, under two different instructions sets: an Arouse condition, where subjects allowed themselves to become aroused; and a Suppress condition, where subjects attempted to suppress or control their arousal. Under the pretreatment Arouse condition, the group with male child victims demonstrated significantly greater arousal to child stimuli than the group with female nonchild victims. However, the group with female child victims could not be differentiated from the group with female nonchild victims. Under the Suppress condition, there was no evidence of discriminative validity for any of the PPG indices. As for predictive validity, posttreatment arousal to male and female children was significantly related to sexual offense recidivism. Posttreatment inability to suppress deviant arousal to male and female children was also significantly related to sexual offense recidivism over the 6-year follow-up period. In light of these findings, the implications for adolescent sex offender research and treatment are discussed.

Key Words: adolescents • discriminative validity • penile plethysmograph • phallometric assessment • predictive validity • sex offenders

This version was published on September 1, 2009

Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment, Vol. 21, No. 3, 335-362 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/1079063209338491


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?