Abstract
The penile plethysmograph was used to assess sex offenders’ level of sexual arousal to videotaped stimuli depicting Mutual, Aggression and Rape scenes. Twenty-seven sex offenders detained in Broadmoor Hospital were used as subjects. Normative data were established for mean percentage of maximum sexual arousal across the stimuli set. Subjects’ voluntary control over their sexual response was investigated within an Instructional Control paradigm. Findings suggest that subjects can control their sexual response, to a significant extent, when instructed to do so. Rapists were found not to control their sexual response to Rape stimuli, to a significant degree, however. An association between control of sexual response and cognitive control, as measured on neuropsychological tests of frontal lobe functioning, was explored and some support for this relationship was found. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for the assessment and treatment of sex offenders.