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Updated: Jul 17, 2026

Assessment of Sexual Behavior of Male Mice
Published on: March 5, 2020
The validity of phallometric assessment with rapists: comments on Looman & Marshall (2005)
Martin L Lalumière1, Marnie E Rice
1University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, Canada. martin.lalumiere@uleth.ca
Abstract:
In a recent article Looman and Marshall (2005) questioned the validity of phallometric assessment of rapists based on the results of a study of incarcerated rapists and child molesters. In this commentary we offer (1) a critique of the methods used and conclusions reached by Looman and Marshall and (2) a discussion of important methodological issues relevant to phallometry. We conclude that the correct inference from Looman and Marshall's study is that rapists, as a group, show a pattern of sexual arousal to audiotaped scenarios of coercive and non-coercive sex that significantly differs from the pattern of groups of non-sex offenders, in agreement with the general literature on this question.
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