Unresolved issues in scientific sexology

A number of unresolved issues in sexology research and practice are reviewe d. Penile volume assessment of sexual arousal has consistently proved more sensitive than penile circumference assessment and requires much shorter ex posure to the erotic stimuli eliciting the arousal, reducing the subjects' ability to modify their responses. Failure to acknowledge this has allowed acceptance of evidence based on penile circumference assessment that behavi oral treatments such as directed masturbation can increase the ability of s ex offenders to be heterosexually aroused and aversive therapy can reduce t heir deviant urges whereas penile volume assessment indicates these procedu res are ineffective. A randomized controlled trial of relapse prevention ve rsus no treatment for sex offenders found more treated than untreated subje cts reoffended after a mean follow-up period of 4 years. Researchers and th erapists accepted that a post hoc statistical manipulation of the results p rovided evidence of a treatment effect. Subsequently it has been recommende d that randomized controlled evaluations of treatments of sex offenders be abandoned Meta-analysis of outcome studies has been used uncritically. The majority of men and women who report homosexual feelings and/or behavior re port predominant heterosexual feelings and behavior and do not identify as homosexual. These consistent findings remain ignored. Studies of the etiolo gy and development of homosexuality and heterosexuality treat them as distr ibuted categorically rather than dimensionally and investigate only self-id entified homosexuals and heterosexuals. With this methodology the predomina ntly heterosexual majority are excluded or misclassified. The belief that t he European concept of the homosexual is a late 19th-century invention is b ased on an inadequate reading of literature. Limitations of the DSM classif ication of sexual and gender identity disorders are pointed out. The validi ty of self-report of sexual behavior has been questioned on the basis that men report a markedly higher average number of sexual partners than women. Possible sex differences bl reporting the number of partners who are of the same sex, casual, or perpetrators or victims of sexual coercion and child abuse have not been taken into account. Failure of sexology to progress due to lack of resolution of conflicting issues may contribute to the low impa ct factor of its journals.