Sexual offenders against female children: Sexual preferences for age of victims and type of behaviour.

Abstract
Erectile responses to sexual stimuli, including pictures of nude females of varius ages and audiotaped verbal descriptions of both consenting and nonconsenting sex with children, were studied in a group of outpatient heterosexual child molesters (21 incest offenders and 40 nonfamilial offenders) and a group of nonoffender subjects matched on intelligence, socioeconomic status, and age. Erectile responses were measured by penile plethysmography. Child molestors (nonfamilial) showed greater arousal to stimuli involving children than did either the incest offenders or the nonoffenders. Incest offenders exhibited less arousal to adult females than the child molestors or the nonoffenders. Child molestors responded more to verbal descriptions of sexual interactions with children than either of the other groups, and some of them showed less discrimination between consenting and nonconsenting episodes than the nonoffenders or the incest offenders. Number of victims predicted high deviant sexual interests, and low IQ child molestors showed more deviant arousal than average IQ child molestors. These results are discussed in terms of their impact on the assessment and treatment of men who molest children.

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