Abstract
Sexual preferences of 38 rapists were assessedphallometrically with and without a semantic trackingtask in a counterbalanced design. Four categories ofaudiotaped vignettes describing neutral interactions, consenting sex, rape, and nonsexual violencewere employed as stimuli. In the semantic tracking task,participants were instructed to press one button whenviolent events were described in the vignette and another when sexual activities weredescribed. Phallometric assessment with the semantictask better discriminated between rapists andnon-sex-offender participants (from an earlier study)than the same assessment without the task. Among fourrapists who had previous experience with phallometrictesting, there was a very strong correlation betweendeviance scores and tracking accuracy. Results suggest that the semantic task may improve discriminantvalidity, particularly among sex offenders who have hadprevious experience with phallometricassessment.
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Harris, G.T., Rice, M.E., Chaplin, T.C. et al. Dissimulation in Phallometric Testing of Rapists' Sexual Preferences. Arch Sex Behav 28, 223–232 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1018732225435
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1018732225435