Institut für Sexualwissenschaft und Sexualmedizin, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Corporate Member of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Luisenstraße 57, 10117, Berlin, Germany.
Klinik für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie, CCM, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin and HumboldtUniversität zu Berlin, Klinik für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie, CCM, Berlin, Germany.
Arch Sex Behav. 2024 Jan;53(1):25-42. doi: 10.1007/s10508-023-02662-y. Epub 2023 Aug 18.
Diagnosing pedohebephilia is fraught with obstacles given the tabooed nature of this sexual preference. The viewing reaction time effect (VRT) provides a non-intrusive indirect measure of sexual interest in minors. In forensic populations, the ability of the difference between the latencies while viewing child and adult sexual stimuli (VRT index) to discern child sexual offenders from a range of control groups has been ascertained meta-analytically. Given that the effect has been studied almost exclusively in forensic samples, its dependence or independence on prior overt (deviant) sexual behavior remains unclear. The present study sought to examine the relationship of prior sexual and non-sexual behaviors with the VRT in a sample of 282 self-referring, help-seeking men with and without pedohebephilia with and without a history of prior child sexual offenses (CSO) or a use of child sexual abuse materials (CSAM) recruited outside a forensic context. We found that (1) the clinical diagnosis of pedohebephilia but not prior CSO or CSAM showed a significant association with the VRT index; (2) the discriminatory ability of the VRT index did not differ significantly between samples with and without a history of prior overt sexual behavior with children; (3) the VRT index correlated positively with a behavioral marker of pedohebephilia in a subsample of individuals with prior judicially detected or undetected overt sexual behavior with children; and (4) in the same subsample, the VRT index correlated positively with markers of sexual interests in minors or hypersexuality but not of antisociality. Equivalence testing failed to refute a potential effect of prior sexual behavior on the VRT index. Our study showed that the VRT may provide an unintrusive diagnostic tool for pedohebephilia. The effect of prior overt sexual behavior with children needs further examination.
诊断恋童癖和恋少癖是困难的，因为这种性偏好具有禁忌性。观看反应时效应（VRT）提供了一种非侵入性的间接测量对未成年人的性兴趣的方法。在法医人群中，通过比较观看儿童和成人色情刺激时的潜伏期差异（VRT 指数）来区分儿童性犯罪者和一系列对照组的能力已经通过元分析得到了确定。鉴于该效应几乎仅在法医样本中进行了研究，因此其对先前明显（异常）性行为的依赖性或独立性仍不清楚。本研究旨在检查 282 名自我报告、寻求帮助的男性样本中，先前的性和非性行为与 VRT 的关系，这些男性有或没有恋童癖和恋少癖，有或没有先前的儿童性犯罪史（CSO）或使用儿童性虐待材料（CSAM），这些参与者是在法医背景之外招募的。我们发现：（1）恋童癖和恋少癖的临床诊断与 VRT 指数显著相关，但先前的 CSO 或 CSAM 则没有；（2）VRT 指数的判别能力在有无先前与儿童发生明显性行为史的样本之间没有显著差异；（3）VRT 指数与具有先前被司法发现或未被发现的与儿童发生明显性行为的个体亚样本中的恋童癖行为标志物呈正相关；（4）在同一亚样本中，VRT 指数与对未成年人的性兴趣或性欲的标志物呈正相关，但与反社会行为的标志物无关。等效性检验未能反驳先前性行为对 VRT 指数的潜在影响。我们的研究表明，VRT 可能为恋童癖和恋少癖提供一种非侵入性的诊断工具。先前与儿童发生明显性行为的影响需要进一步研究。
