The evaluation of sexual offenders, including child molestors, is an inexact science. Physiological assessment tools, such as the plethysmograph and Abel Screen, are used to assess sexual arousal and sexual interest in clients. They do not, in and of themselves, have any validity in determining whether a person did or did not commit a crime. The use of polygraphs in assessments are generally used to determine if a client has been forthcoming about their self-report in terms of sexual history, behaviors, interests. These tools combined with a good clinical workup, with an evaluator skilled in working with this population can answer the question, "Is it more or less likely that this client did what he/she is accused of doing?" That's the best that we have got going at this point in time. There are no, to my knowledge, scientifically valiadated measures of risk assessment, although there are a lot of them.
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