The purpose of this study was threefold: (a) develop, validate, and compare two measures, viewing time and choice reaction time, that sexual content induced delay (SCID; Geer & Bellard, 1996) among youth non-sexual offenders, university students, and adults who had sexually offended, (b) address some of the methodological weaknesses in prior research, and (c) examine the measures’ clinical utility by investigating their predictive validity via estimates of sensitivity and specificity. Viewing time (VT) assesses how long an individual takes to view an image of a single person while completing a task, and choice reaction time (CRT) measures how quickly and accurately an individual indicates to which category (there must be two or more from which the participant can choose) the presented stimulus belongs. I administered the two measures plus questionnaires on sexual orientation (Friedman et al., 2004) and social desirability (BIDR-6; Paulhus, 1991) to three samples: youth non-sexual offenders, university students, and adult sex offender. I examined the clinical utility of the measures by investigating their predictive validity via ROC estimates of sensitivity and specificity. Each measure consisted of a preset randomized presentation of computer-modified clothed male and female images of various ages. There are five central results from this study. First, both the VT and CRT measures produced subtest scores with high reliability, via item and scale analysis, with all three samples, and there appears to be one dominant underlying construct for both measures. Second, there were significant differences between the adult sexual offenders and the youth non-sexual offenders when assessed with the VT measures, but not between the youth non-sexual offenders and the university students. In this study, neither age nor education influenced these results. Third, there were significant differences between youth non-sexual offenders and the university sample when assessed with the CRT measure, but not between the adult sex offenders and either the youth non-sexual offenders or university students. Fourth, as evidenced by point two and three, the VT and CRT measures provided significantly different results. Finally, the VT measure demonstrated excellent clinical utility in its ability to differentiate adult heterosexual sexual offenders from non-sexual offenders (for example, AUC = 0.87 female mature images, 0.88 male child images).

Thesis (M.S.W.)--Smith College School for Social Work, Northampton, Mass., 2007 / Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment for the degree of Master of Social Work. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 25-32, 54-62, 86-94).

Thesis (M A(Social Work and Criminology))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references. Available on the Internet via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Ohio University, June, 2008. / Title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Carleton University, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 113-129). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Syracuse University, 2008. / "Publication number: AAT 3323074."

Thesis (M.S.W.)--Smith College School for Social Work, Northampton, Mass., 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 13-21, 36-44).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1999. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 36-44). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1996. / Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 118-128). Also available via the Internet.

Thesis (M.Ed.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 1999. / Bibliography: p. 85-101.