New Test Takes Closer Look At High-Risk Sex Offenders

On September 1, a new law will go into effect that aims to better label the most dangerous sex offenders, and the method is unconventional, to say the least.

If you take a look at the Austin Police Department's registry, you'll find 80 sex offenders listed as living in zip code 78753. The problem is that you don't know if it's little children that gets a particular offender sexually aroused but the new pilot program will test that.

"Is he aroused to kids?" said Scott Siegel with Central Texas Counseling. "Is he aroused to adults? Is he aroused to force?"

Counselors like Siegel will know that because the offenders will be hearing rape scenes, incest scenes while sitting in a specially designed chair, and they'll see lots of images.

"They're seeing adults and children, all the way from infants up, and they're provocatively dressed," Siegel said. "The client puts [a monitoring ring attached to the chair] midshaft on their penis, and what this does is measure the increased blood flow to the penis, which is how men show they're sexually aroused."

This test is part of a new assessment the state is trying out on sex offenders going on probation. The idea is to separate low-risk offenders from violent sexual predators.

"What this pilot program will do is look at all the high-risk factors in a sex offender," said Allison Taylor with the Council on Sex Offender Treatment. "If they have psychopathy, if they have deviant arousal to prepubescent children or rape scenarios, if they have multiple victims. Their criminal history."--