Would You Have Thunk It? ... The Wonders Of 'Science', Mind You ...

12 hours 2 minutes ago

Paedophiles identified accurately with implicit association tasks

"A combination of two tasks for implied sexual associations has distinguished – with more than 90 per cent certainty – a group of paedophilic men from a group of men with a sexual preference for adult women. In the long term this could lead to a diagnostic test, for example for men who have applied to work with children. (ah, so people who are attracted to people, should not be allowed to work with people - we see, because, tastes cannot develop (or be quenched), or be shielded (or repressed), can they? ..oh, and self-control does not exist, does it?]

Psychologists at Radboud University Nijmegen will publish their findings in the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior (online from 24 april).

This study was the first to work with paedophilic men who were not imprisoned or confined for involuntary psychiatric treatment in a clinic.

It reported a highly significant effect: the tests distinguished the paedophile group from the controls with more than 90 per cent accuracy.

Furthermore, in both groups of subjects (paedophiles and heterosexual non-paedophiles [how do you know?]) one of the tasks (the Picture Association Task, see below) indicated positive as well as negative associations with sex with either children under twelve or adult women.

Stated another way: the test showed that paedophiles not only have positive associations with children and sex, but also negative associations with adult women and sex. In the control group, this was the exact opposite."

"in paedophiles (people with a sexual preference for children) and paedosexuals (people who act according to this preference)? [ah, yet another definition]"

http://www.healthcanal.com/public-health-safety/38023-paedophiles-identified-accurately-with-implicit-association-tasks.html

April 2013

Assessment of Implicit Sexual Associations in Non-Incarcerated Pedophiles

Abstract

"Offences committed by pedophiles [sic] are crimes that evoke serious public concern and outrage.

Although recent research using implicit measures has shown promise in detecting deviant sexual associations, the discriminatory and predictive quality of implicit tasks has not yet surpassed traditional assessment methods such as questionnaires and phallometry.

The current research extended previous findings by examining whether a combination of two implicit tasks, the Implicit Association Task (IAT) and the Picture Association Task (PAT), was capable of differentiating pedophiles from non-pedophiles, and whether the PAT, which allows separate analysis for male, female, boy and girl stimulus categories, was more sensitive to specific sexual associations in pedophiles than the IAT.

A total of 20 male self-reported pedophiles (10 offender and 10 non-offenders) and 20 male self-reported heterosexual [wink] controls completed the two implicit measures.

Results indicated that the combination of both tasks produced the strongest results to date in detecting implicit pedophilic preferences (AUC = .97).

Additionally, the PAT showed promise in decomposing the sexual associations in pedophiles.

Interestingly, as there was an equal distribution of offenders and non-offenders in the pedophile group, it was possible to test for implicit association differences between these groups. This comparison showed no clear link between having these implicit sexual associations and actual offending."

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-013-0094-0