Underreporting of bestiality among juvenile sex offenders: polygraph versus self-report

Juvenile sex offenders (JSO) are a specific subset of delinquent adolescents that are receiving more attention because of the crimes they commit and the issues surrounding how to successfully treat their deviant behaviors. Given JSO are such predominant treatment concerns in society, it is essential to identify and target key risk factors. One sexual behavior, bestiality, may be of particular importance to address in treatment. In a meta-analysis conducted by Seto and Lalumiere, a 14% rate of bestiality among JSO was reported. This current study examined the differences in JSO (n = 32) who admitted bestiality based upon a self-report measure, the Multiphasic Sexual Inventory-II (MSI-II), compared to information elicited by polygraphs. The results indicated extensive underreporting of bestiality behaviors between these two sources of information (MSI-II = 37.5%; polygraph = 81.25%). These findings are important given the reliance treatment programs place on information elicited from self-report tools.