Penile Responses To Visual Stimuli

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Abstract
As a greater number of treatment units have investigated the use of the penile transducer to evaluate child molesters and rapists, greater interest has focused on the issues of the validity of these procedures. Of greatest concern is the extent to which clients might fake their erection responses so as to give false information regarding their arousal patterns or response to treatment. For this reason, two papers have been included that deal with specific issues regarding fakability. In attempting to understand this problem, the reader should not receive the impression that treatment centers rely exclusively on such psychophysiologic measurement techniques. These measures are but one means of evaluating the client's response to treatment and must be incorporated in the sum total of information used to evaluate the client's current status. Quinsey and Carrigan describe a study of nine nondeviates who were instructed to fake a deviant sexual preference during the measurement of their sexual arousal with the penile transducer. These data confirmed that normals can fake deviant arousal patterns either while simply looking at deviant slides or when looking at deviant slides while listening to audio descriptions of deviant sexual behavior with the individuals appearing in the slides. These results lend further support to the need for the cautious interpretation of penile measures in determining sexual preferences with aggressives.