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Publication
To be or not to be empathic: The role of empathy in child sexual offending
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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
Although treatment providers very often use empathy training in treatment for those who
sexually offend, it is essential to further investigate the predictive capacity of this construct
for committing a child sexual offending. This study aimed to examine the relationship
between empathy and different types of offending behavior (i.e., child sexual offending and
nonsexual offending). The sample was composed of 113 male individuals who sexually
offended minors (ISOMs) and 146 individuals convicted of nonsexual crimes. Four separate
binary logistic regression analyses were conducted controlling for sociodemographic
variables. Only cognitive empathy emerged as a predictor for committing a sexual crime
against a minor, with ISOMs being more likely to score less in cognitive empathy than the
nonsexual group. Therefore, extrafamilial ISOMs are more likely to score higher in cognitive
empathy than intrafamilial. This study highlighted the importance of addressing cognitive
empathy in psychological intervention for ISOMs.
Description
Keywords
Affective empathy Intrafamilial child sexual offending Extrafamilial child sexual offending Cognitive empathy
Citation
Sousa, M., Gonçalves, R. A., Cunha, O., & de Castro-Rodrigues, A. (2023). To be or not to be empathic: The role of empathy in child sexual offending. European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10610-023-09567-5
Publisher
Springer Netherlands