Physical Height in Pedophilic and Hebephilic Sexual Offenders

The current study examined the relationship between offender height and pedophilic interest (as measured by having a victim under 13 years old) in a sample of 22,228 registered sex offenders in the United States. Results revealed that offenders with victims age 12 and under were, on average, nearly one-quarter inch shorter than offenders of adults, and .18 inches shorter than those with minor teen victims. Implications for future research about the biological etiology of child sexual abuse perpetration are discussed, including the role of adverse childhood experiences in the neurodevelopment of offenders.

J Consult Clin Psychol, 1990

It is argued that methodological problems in Hall, Proctor, and Nelson's (1988) comparison of phallometric data on child molesters and rapists include confounding of stimulus category and duration, omission of neutral stimuli and a normal control group, failure to employ relative measures of sexual preference, and failure to exclude subjects who did not respond to the sexual stimuli. Quinsey and Laws maintain that, although these methodological problems preclude accepting the conclusions drawn in Hall et al.'s article, the problems illustrate the need to develop common methodological standards for phallometric research on sexual offenders.

Journal of …, 2007

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1988

Archives of Sexual Behavior, 2000

The Screening Scale for Pedophilic Interests (SSPI;, a brief measure of sexual attraction to prepubescent children that is based on victim characteristics, was used in two samples of 113 and 145 adult male sex offenders with child victims. In both samples, the SSPI was significantly and positively correlated with an index of phallometrically-measured sexual arousal to stimuli depicting prepubescent children. It was also significantly and positively correlated in both samples with violent recidivism (meaning either nonsexually violent offenses or sexual offenses involving physical contact with a victim), and positively correlated with sexual recidivism, significantly so in the second, larger sample. Focusing on the larger sample, the SSPI added to the predictive accuracy of a measure of general antisociality (the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised), while the phallometric index of sexual arousal did not add predictive accuracy once the other two measures were entered. The SSPI also yielded the same interaction between anomalous sexual interests and psychopathy we had previously reported using phallometric data . These findings suggest that the SSPI has predictive utility among adult male sex offenders with child victims, and accounts for variance in sexual offending that is not explained by phallometric testing.

Behaviour Research and Therapy, 1988

Erectile responses among men who had sexually abused male children were compared with the responses of matched non-offenders. Stimulus presentations included nude males and females of ages ranging from 3 to 24yr, and verbal descriptions of sexual interactions involving varying levels of intrusiveness and coercive behavior between an adult male and a boy. As a group, the child molesters

Child Abuse & Neglect, 2002

Objective: The aim of the study was to identify the general, common, and specific developmental risk factors for pedophilia, exhibitionism, rape, and multiple paraphilia, and to address five methodological issues observed in this area of research. Method: This study involved 64 sex offenders and 33 nonsex, nondrug-related, and nonviolent property offenders. The group of 64 sex offenders was further divided into eight subgroups, some of which overlapped in memberships because of multiple diagnoses. To overcome the methodological problem associated with overlapping group memberships, a special approach involving comparisons of sets of logistic regression analyses was adopted. Offenders were clinically assessed for evidence of paraphilias, and their adverse childhood experiences were measured by a battery of tests.

Journal of Psychiatric Practice, 2007

Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 2006

This study investigated whether being charged with a child pornography offense is a valid diagnostic indicator of pedophilia, as represented by an index of phallometrically assessed sexual arousal to children. The sample of 685 male patients was referred between 1995 and 2004 for a sexological assessment of their sexual interests and behavior. As a group, child pornography offenders showed greater sexual arousal to children than to adults and differed from groups of sex offenders against children, sex offenders against adults, and general sexology patients. The results suggest child pornography offending is a stronger diagnostic indicator of pedophilia than is sexually offending against child victims. Theoretical and clinical implications are discussed.