Dr. Laws et al., Classification of child molesters by plethysmographic assessment of sexualarousal and a self-report measure of sexual preference, J INTERP V, 15(12), 2000, pp. 1297-1312
The present study examined the extent to which the use of multiple measures
of pedophilic interest improved on the diagnostic accuracy of any single m
easure. Seventy-two child molesters completed a self-report card-sort measu
re of sexual interest, as well as direct monitoring of penile response (pen
ile plethysmograph-PPG) when presented with erotic slides or audio material
. The reliability of ail measures was high (alpha .91-.96). All three measu
res of pedophilic interest (i.e., card sort, PPG slides, PPG audio) signifi
cantly differentiated boy-object (n = 20) and girl-object child molesters (
n = 52). The card-sort measure showed the greatest classification accuracy
and was the only measure to significantly improve accuracy, once the other
two modalities were considered. Consideration of all three modalities provi
ded classification accuracy (91.7%) greater than any single measure.