An Efficient Measure of Sexual Interest in Children: The Revised Screening Scale for Pedophilic Interests (SSPI-2)

TL;DR

The SSPI-2 is a new screening tool that effectively measures sexual interest in children and improves predictions of recidivism in offenders.

Contribution

The SSPI-2 demonstrates improved validity and predictive accuracy compared to previous tools for assessing pedophilic interests.

Findings

The SSPI-2 showed small to medium correlations with phallometric testing and pedohebephilic diagnoses.

The SSPI-2 outperformed the original SSPI in predicting 5-year sexual and non-contact sexual recidivism.

The SSPI-2 added incremental predictive accuracy to existing risk assessment tools like the BARR-2002R and PCL-R.

Abstract

This study examined the convergent, divergent, predictive, and incremental validity of the Revised Screening Scale for Pedophilic Interests (SSPI-2) in a sample of 264 men adjudicated for sexual offenses against at least one child under the age of 15. We found evidence of construct validity as the SSPI-2 had small to medium correlations with phallometric testing (r = .31), recorded pedohebephilic diagnoses (r = .52), and attitudes tolerant of sexual offending against children (r = .23), in addition to small and non-significant correlations with the PCL-R (r = −.07), VRAG-R (r = −.09), BARR-2002R (r = −.06), and conduct disorder (r = −.07). As indicated by DeLong tests, the SSPI-2 was a better predictor of 5-year sexual (Z = −2.44) and non-contact sexual recidivism (Z = −2.46) than the SSPI. The SSPI-2 also added incremental predictive accuracy to risk tools such as the BARR-2002R, PCL-R, VRAG-R, and Static-99R. Overall, our findings suggest that the SSPI-2 is a valid measure of sexual interest in children and may be useful as a screening tool to help inform prioritization and management.

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