Eye‐Tracking and Assessing Sexual Interest in Forensic Contexts

Abstract

Over the past 30 years, within forensic contexts there has been increasing interest in the use of assessments based on behavioural and implicit assessment processes. Eye‐tracking, the ability to identify and track where an individual is looking, has increasingly been used to infer underlying cognitive processes related to observed behaviour. Within forensic contexts, the ability to monitor where an individual is looking, and by implication what they are interested in, is increasingly being seen as one potential way to gain objective information about offender cognitions. Eye‐tracking has been used to study general factors related to sexual interest within non‐offending samples and is increasingly being used to assess inappropriate or deviant sexual interest in offending populations. This chapter overviews the concept of eye‐tracking as a methodology, describes a number of different areas where it has been used, and then discusses in more detail how eye‐tracking is currently being used to assess normal and deviant sexual interest.

Use of penile plethysmography in the court: A review of practices in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States

“…There are also depictions of adult sexual violence ethically produced by regulated filmmakers and actors, as in the CRV (“consent, rape violence”) moving images set developed by one of the current authors (Hogue, Wesson, & Perkins, ), or auditory stimuli, describing different types of sex offense scenarios (“Marshall” stimuli set).The guidelines also address the issue of minimizing harm in the use of PPG assessment (BPS, ): Selection of PPG stimuli – both content and modality – should take into account the need to strike an appropriate balance between seeking to obtain the best possible assessment of risk and/or treatment need and minimising the danger of exposing the participant to material that may be therapeutically counter‐productive; and For clinical assessments PPG stimuli should be targeted to the participant's specific needs – regarding risk management and/or treatment need – and should be proportionate to the purposes of the assessment, e.g. not more extreme or extensive than needed for the assessment. …”

“…There are also depictions of adult sexual violence ethically produced by regulated filmmakers and actors, as in the CRV ("consent, rape violence") moving images set developed by one of the current authors (Hogue, Wesson, & Perkins, 2017), or auditory stimuli, describing different types of sex offense scenarios ("Marshall" stimuli set).The guidelines also address the issue of minimizing harm in the use of PPG assessment (BPS, 2008):…”