Robert M. Stein’s research while affiliated with New York State Psychiatric Institute and other places

One hundred and sixty adolescent sexual offenders were evaluated by penile plethysmography, using two-minute audiotaped stimulus cues. Results indicate that 80.6% of the adolescents achieved greater than 20% of an erection response. Mean latency from stimulus onset to maximum tumescence was 95 seconds. Mean latency to detumescence from stimulus offset was 109 seconds. These results indicate that adolescent males are suitable subjects for psychophysiologic assessment which can be used as part of an overall evaluation to determine treatment needs in this population.

A majority of adult child molesters report that their deviant interest began prior to the age of 18. This illustrates the need to evaluate adolescents who have molested children. Since self-report of deviant interest is rare in adolescent offenders, psychophysiologic assessment is necessary to help to determine the extent for a deviant interest pattern. The current study was designed to determine what factors are associated with erectile responding to age-inappropriate stimuli in an adolescent sex offender population. Factors studied were (a) admit/deny, (b) history of physical abuse, (c) history of sexual abuse, (d) history of nonsex arrests, and (e) incest/nonincest. The dependent variables were two pedophile indices, a relative measure of deviant to nondeviant arousal. Results indicated that history of sexual abuse was associated with more deviant erectile responding in those adolescents who had molested young boys. The possibility of adolescents modeling their own victimization is discussed.