Forensic assessment of sexual interest: A review

The paper reviews the published literature relating to the assessment of sexual preference in child-sex offenders. Evaluated physiological techniques include penile plethysmography and pupillometry. Self-report measures include interviews, questionnaires, and card sorts. Procedures utilizing attentional phenomena and information processing are also reviewed. Findings are presented with a discussion of the problems inherent to each procedure. The paper notes that while plethysmography is generally considered the sexual preference measure of choice, similarly to most other assessments of sexual preference, it is vulnerable to faking. The paper suggests that a combination of a card sort and the Multiphasic Sex Inventory (MSI) may provide the most cost-effective assessment of sexual interest and the measurement of the likelihood of faked responses. Consideration is also given to the future development of assessment techniques, in particular the potential for attentional methodologies to effectively assess sexual interest while remaining resilient to faking.