Sensitivity and Specificity of the Phallometric Test for Hebephilia
Bibliographic record
Abstract
INTRODUCTION: The phallometric test has been examined most widely in the literature with regard to its ability to detect pedophilia; however, it has become of increasing interest to clinicians and researchers to ascertain to what extent the test accurately detects hebephilia: Whereas pedophilia refers to an adult's sexual interest in prepubescent children (age 10 or younger, on average), hebephilia refers to an adult's sexual interest in pubescent children (ages 11-14, on average). AIM: The aim of this study was to estimate the accuracy of volumetric phallometry in distinguishing pedophilic men and hebephilic men from men who are teleiophilic (primarily sexually interested in adults, age 17 or older). METHODS: A retrospective chart review was conducted on the cumulate database of a large phallometric laboratory and clinic to identify a group of 239 men who committed sexual offenses against extrafamilial adults age 17 or older and a group of 996 men who committed sexual offenses against extrafamilial children age 14 or younger, all of whom professed a greater sexual interest in adults over children. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The sensitivity and specificity of the phallometric test is calculated for its accuracy in distinguishing sexual preferences for children spanning various age ranges. RESULTS: Receiver operator characteristic curves were highly significant for each classification decision: Using its previously established cut-point of +0.25 standard deviation (SD) units, the phallometric test detected hebephilia with a sensitivity and specificity of 70.0% and 90.7%, detected pedophilia with 46.9% and 100%, and detected pedohebephilia with 75.3% and 90.7%. At a new cut-point of +0.0 SD units, the sensitivity and specificity of the test for pedophilia was 71.9% and 95.3%. CONCLUSIONS: Volumetric phallometry significantly distinguishes teleiophilic sex offenders from each of pedophilic, hebephilic, and pedohebephilic sex offenders and can serve as a reliable diagnostic test of sexual age preference among men who deny sexual interest in children.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.004 | 0.028 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.003 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.001 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".