The phallometric assessment of sex offenders: some professional and research issues

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Abstract
Phallometry (or penile plethysmography) is a technique for measuring penile erection in response to a variety of stimuli, used with many procedural variations in different sex offender assessment centres. Recent research suggests that penile plethysmography, in spite of its many unresolved methodological problems, is both valid and reliable. The technique is ideally suited to challenge sex offenders’ denials, assess their treatment needs and to evaluate treatment, although it can not be relied upon, on its own, to establish guilt or predict future deviant sexual behaviour. An examination of current practice suggests a number of areas where research is needed: to design and standardise stimulus material; to provide more reliability data; to develop and test procedures to discourage faking; and to carry out validation studies with forensic and non‐forensic populations (which include a detailed analysis of the subjects’ sexual history, motivation and fantasies) . Finally, professional guidelines are needed to control conduction and interpretation of assessments, use of stimuli and counselling of clients.