Ten individuals, residing in a treatment facility specializing in the rehabilitation of sex offenders with developmental disabilities, participated in an arousal assessment involving the use of the penile plethysmograph. The arousal assessments involved measuring change in penile circumference to various categories of stimuli both appropriate (adult men and women) and inappropriate (e.g., 8-to 9-year-old boys and girls). This approach extends the existing assessment literature by the use of repeated measurement and single-subject experimental design. Data from these assessments were analyzed to determine if clear and informative outcomes were obtained. Overall, three general patterns of results emerged. Some participants showed differentiated deviant arousal or higher levels of arousal to specific inappropriate stimuli (deviant is a term used in the existing sex-offender literature to describe this type of arousal). Other participants showed undifferentiated deviant arousal, in which case they showed nonspecific arousal to inappropriate stimuli. The remaining participants showed no arousal to inappropriate stimuli but did show arousal to appropriate stimuli. Implications for assessment, treatment, and future directions are discussed.

Research reviews reveal two dominant explanations of race as a factor in disparate imprisonment rates and treatment in the criminal justice system: (a) disparate imprisonment rates are the result of race making a difference and (b) Blacks (people of color) commit not only more crime but also more serious crimes than other groups. In most instances, the hypothesis that race is a significant factor in the existing disproportionate imprisonment rates was either suggested or undeniably supported (Blalock

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The goal of this research is to test the psychometric properties of the Levels of Attribution and Change (LAC) scale using a segment of a High-Security Federal correctional population. The LAC measures ten causal attributions of a given problem. The theoretical and empirical interrelatedness of these attributions are explored through a range of statistical techniques. The results suggest that the LAC is a reliable instrument that demonstrates concurrent validity. Offender attributions or explanations about the causes of their imprisonment are represented by two dimensions. One is predominantly external, and the other is predominantly internal. A more complex LAC attribution set is associated with measures of treatment motivation and criminal thinking style. The utility of the LAC as an indicator of treatment responsivity is discussed.

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