The Screening Scale for Hebephilic Interests (SSHI)

The current study is an analysis of archival data from a sexual behaviour clinic in Toronto, Canada. The dataset is comprised of offenders who were referred to the clinic for a sexological assessment and includes assessment information, such as victim information and phallometric assessment data for each offender. Victim information is comprised of official file information and official criminal history documentation. Phallometric testing is a psychophysiological measure of sexual arousal to different stimuli which vary by sex (male or female) and sexual development (prepubescent, pubescent, and adult). The purpose of this study is to examine victim characteristics that are positively associated with a primary sexual interest in pubescent children (hebephilia) and to combine these items to develop a scale that can accurately classify offenders with primary hebephilic interests from those who have no sexual interest in children. The classification of these two groups (primary hebephilia versus no sexual interest in children) is based on phallometric testing (see ‘Indices’).