Assessing components of empathy in sex-offenders with intellectual disabilities

Authors:
RALFS Sonya, BEAIL Nigel
Journal article citation:
Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities, 25(1), January 2012, pp.50-59.
Publisher:
Wiley

Aiming to examine empathy in sex offenders with intellectual disabilities because of a lack of previous research, this study focused on the components outlined in the 4 stage process model of empathy (emotion recognition, perspective taking, emotion replication, and response decision). 21 male sex offenders with intellectual and developmental disability and 21 male non-offenders with intellectual disabilities completed the Test of Emotional Perception, and the responses were compared. The study found that there were no significant differences between the 2 groups across the components of empathy, but that sex offenders who had received treatment performed better on tasks of emotion recognition, emotion replication and response decision than the non-offenders. The authors conclude that further research is needed to understand empathy in sex offenders with intellectual disabilities.

Subject terms:
learning disabilities, men, sex offenders, adults, empathy;
Content type:
research
Location(s):
United Kingdom
Link:
Journal home page
ISSN online:
1468-3148
ISSN print:
1360-2322

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