Use of Visual Reaction Time to Assess Male Adolescents Who Molest Children

• NCJ Number: 206264
• Journal: Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment Volume: 16 Issue: 3 Dated: July 2004 Pages: 255-265
• Author(s): Gene G. Abel; Alan Jordan; Joanne L. Rouleau; Robert Emerick; Sharen Barboza-Whitehead; Candice Osborn
• Date Published: July 2004
• Length: 11 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study examined the use of visual reaction time to assess male adolescents who molest children.

Abstract

With the recent realization of the extent to which adolescents are committing sexual offenses, researchers have attempted to identify valid and reliable assessment instruments for this population. Some such instruments have met with criticism relative to their utility with juvenile offenders. This study tried to assess the validity of the Abel Assessment for Sexual Interest (AASI) with male adolescents who have molested children. The first part of the study examined whether the AASI can differentiate adolescents who admit to molesting a child from the nonmolesting adolescents, only on the basis of their visual reaction times (VRT). The study also attempted to determine whether VRT was related to the number of children the adolescent had molested and their number of acts of child molestation. The participants of this study included 1,704 adolescent males undergoing evaluation or treatment for sexual paraphilias using the AASI. Participants were selected from a database of subjects who had taken the AASI between 1994 and March 2003. Participants were included in the study if they met the following criteria: they were between the ages of 11 and 17 years old and they were able to take the assessment without the use of someone to read the test items from the questionnaire for them. The group was divided into molesters and nonmolesters. Participants were shown a slide show on a computer, the computer measured the time each participant took to rate the slide and advance the slide (VRT). This study supports the criterion validity of the AASI for identifying admitted male child molesters, but it does not investigate whether the AASI can identify adolescent male child molesters who deny their offenses, a critical factor for clinicians evaluating suspected abusers. Tables, references