The Differentiation of Francophone Rapists and Nonrapists Using Penile Circumferential Measures

Abstract

A group of ten French-speaking rapists and ten French-speaking nonrapists were exposed to four classes of audiotaped stimuli: mutually consenting, rape, aggressive, and sexually neutral episodes. Penile circumference changes were recorded during stimulus presentation. Although rapists and nonrapists did not respond differentially to mutually consenting stimulus episodes, the two groups were distinguished by their responses to rape episodes. The discrimination was even more marked when the results were individually analyzed using the rape index. Thus we were able to replicate, in French, the differentiation between rapists and non-rapists using penile measures.