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