Table 1.
Characteristics of the Structural and Functional Studies with Sexual Offenders
| Participant sex and age, and sample size of studies examined in current review | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| |
Study characteristics |
|||
| Study citation | Imaging technique | Participant sex | Sexual offenders (age, mean/SD) | Control group (age, mean/SD) |
| Hucker et al. (1988)a | CT | Male | 22 Sadists (26.36/4.1) | 20 Nonviolent/nonsexual offenders (24.87/8.1) |
| 21 Nonsadistic sexual aggressors (29.00/7.8) | ||||
| 8 Unclassified offenders (n.r.) | ||||
| Wright et al. (1990)a | CT | Male | 34 Sexual aggressors (n.r.) | 12 Nonviolent/nonsexual offenders (n.r.) |
| 18 Pedophiles (n.r.) | ||||
| 12 Incest offenders (n.r.) | ||||
| Cantor et al. (2015)a | DTI | Male | 24 Pedophilic offenders (35.63/9.5) | 32 Controls (37.00/10.7) |
| Chen et al. (2016)a | DTI | Male | 15 Rapists (33.10/6.5) | 15 Controls (33.00/6.8) |
| Gerwinn et al. (2015)a,b | DTI | Male | 11 Heterosexual pedophiles (n.r.) | 18 Heterosexual controls (n.r.) |
| 13 Homosexual pedophiles (n.r.) | 14 Homosexual controls (n.r.) | |||
| Lett et al. (2018) | MRI | Male | 73 Pedophilic offenders (39.80/9.0) | 133 Nonpedophilic controls (33.60/10.2) |
| 77 Nonoffending pedophiles (34.20/9.4) | ||||
| Poeppl et al. (2013)a | MRI | Male | 9 Pedophiles (45.00/8.0) | 11 Nonsexual offenders (29.00/6.0) |
| Schiffer et al. (2017) | MRI | Male | 50 Pedophilic offenders (40.10/9.1) | 101 Teleiophilic controls (33.80/10.5) |
| 60 Nonoffending pedophiles (34.40/9.2) | ||||
| Cohen et al. (2002)a | PET | Male | 7 Pedophiles (38.00/8.0) | 7 Healthy controls (37.00/10.0) |
| Fonteille et al. (2018)a | PET | Male | 15 Patients with pedophilia (42.00/12.6) | 15 Controls (41.20/16.20) |
| Kärgel et al. (2015)a | fMRI | Male | 14 Nonoffending pedophiles (28.07/5.7) | 14 Healthy controls (32.86/9.9) |
| 12 Pedophilic offenders (43.67/7.1) | ||||
| Kärgel et al. (2017) | fMRI | Male | 37 Nonoffending pedophiles (37.00/8.8) | 40 Healthy controls (36.65/10.1) |
| 40 Pedophilic offenders (38.25/8.5) | ||||
| Kneer et al. (2019)a | fMRI | Male | 20 Nonpedophilic child sexual abusers (38.25/8.5) | 20 Normal, healthy controls (45.20/11.2) |
| Massau et al. (2017)a | fMRI | Male | 16 Pedophilic offenders (36.44/8.01) | 19 Healthy controls (33.47/10.2) |
| 15 Nonoffending pedophiles (31.73/6.5) | ||||
| Sartorius et al. (2008)a | fMRI | Male | 10 Pedophiles (31.10/8.9) | 10 Heterosexual controls (35.30/8.3) |
a
The study had one or more participant group with <30 participants.
b
The authors note that seven participants for the “paedophilia” sample were not exclusively attracted to children (i.e., sometimes attracted sexually to adults).
“n.r.,” age information not reported in publication.
CT, computed tomography; DTI, diffusion tensor imaging; MRI, magnetic resonance imaging; PET, positron emission tomography; fMRI, functional magnetic resonance imaging; SD, standard deviation.