Empathy in paedophilia and sexual offending against children: a longitudinal extension

Schuler, Miriam; Mohnke, Sebastian; Amelung, Till; Dziobek, Isabel; Borchardt, Viola; Gerwinn, Hannah; Kärgel, Christian; Kneer, Jonas; Massau, Claudia; Pohl, Alexander; Weiß, Simone; Pieper, Susann; Sinke, Christopher; Beier, Klaus M.; Walter, Martin; Ponseti, Jorge; Schiffer, Boris; Krüger, Tillmann H.C.; Walter, Henrik

doi:10.1080/13552600.2021.1931721

Cited by 6 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 64 publications

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“…The result showing that SO had higher and lower levels of, respectively, interpersonal and affective deficits and antisocial behavior suggests that psychopathic traits could be differentially related to sex crimes and other types of crimes. This result appears consistent with literature data which extensively showed that sex offenders would be characterized by severe deficits in interpersonal empathy and emotion regulation (Gillespie et al, 2018;Schuler et al, 2021), while other types of offenders would show antisocial personality traits (Mazzoni et al, 2018;Azevedo et al, 2020).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Non-intimate Relationships and Psychopathic Interpersonal and Affective Deficits as Risk Factors for Criminal Career: A Comparison Between Sex Offenders and Other Offenders

et al. 2021

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Sex-offenders are at risk of criminal recidivism. For the treatment to be truly effective, it must be individualized. For this purpose, an accurate assessment should focus on criminological, psychological, and psychopathological features. The present study compared sex offenders with other offenders on historical experiences (i.e., problems with violence, anti-social behaviors, problems with personal relationships, problems with substance use, traumatic experiences, and parenting style). In addition, given the association between life events and psychopathy, we explored whether the relation between life events and crime type (sexual crime vs. other types of crime) might be moderated by psychopathy traits (interpersonal and affective deficits and antisocial behavior). Eighty-eight sex offenders (76% of whom child molesters) and 102 other offenders were included. The Historical, Clinical and Risk Management - 20 item Version 3 (HCR-20V3) and Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) were administered. The scores of the HCR-20V3 Historical scale items were computed to assess life events. The scores of the PCL-R factors, F1 Interpersonal affective deficits and F2 Antisocial behavior, were recorded. The presence of a history of problems with non-intimate relationships was the only significant risk factor for sexual crime compared with other crimes. Interpersonal and affective deficits provided an increased likelihood of being sex offenders as compared with other offenders when problems with non-intimate relationships were possibly/partially or certainly present.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Non-intimate Relationships and Psychopathic Interpersonal and Affective Deficits as Risk Factors for Criminal Career: A Comparison Between Sex Offenders and Other Offenders

et al. 2021

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“…superior CE performance in P − CSO compared to P + CSO; Schuler et al. , 2019 , 2021 ), it is the group of P − CSO that exhibited reduced recruitment of the Pcu during cognitively inferring affective states. However, since we also observed increased ACC activity and enhanced task-dependent functional coupling between the Pcu and the ACC in P − CSO, we want to carefully speculate that the Pcu may be top-down modulated by the ACC in P − CSO.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…This is of considerable interest as we have found evidence for superior CE performance in P − CSO compared to P + CSO ( Schuler et al. , 2019 , 2021 ). It has therefore been speculated that CE may act as a potentially therapeutic target to reduce the risk of reoffending in pedophilia.…”

mentioning

confidence: 81%

“… Schuler et al. , 2019 , 2021 ). CE is also frequently referred to as affective ToM, namely when it is contrasted with cognitive ToM, which refers to the ability to understand cognitive states of others (e.g.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Prior studies on behavioral CE performance required participants to infer affective states of presented facial expressions ( Schuler et al. , 2019 , 2021 ). It can therefore be assumed that both tasks assess important but different facets of CE and require independent replications.…”

Section: Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Neural processing associated with cognitive empathy in pedophilia and child sexual offending

Schuler¹,

Mohnke

Amelung³

et al. 2021

Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience

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Behavioral studies found evidence for superior cognitive empathy (CE) in pedophilic men without a history of child sexual offending (P-CSO) compared to pedophilic men with a history of CSO (P+CSO). Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies also point to differences between P-CSO and P+CSO. Neural processing associated with CE has not yet been investigated. Therefore, the present study aimed to explore the neural correlates of CE in subjects with pedophilia with (P+CSO) and without (P-CSO) child sexual offending. 15 P+CSO, 15 P-CSO, and 24 teleiophilic male controls (TC) performed a CE task during fMRI. We observed reduced activation in the left precuneus (Pcu) and increased activation in the left anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) in P-CSO compared to P+CSO. P-CSO also showed stronger connectivity between these regions, which might reflect a top-down modulation of the Pcu by the ACC toward an increased self-focused emotional reaction in social situations. There was also evidence for increased right superior temporal gyrus activation in P-CSO that might constitute a potentially compensatory recruitment due to the dampened Pcu activation. These findings provide first evidence for altered neural processing of CE in P-CSO and underline the importance of addressing CE in pedophilia and CSO in order to uncover processes relevant to effective prevention of child sexual abuse.

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To Be or Not to Be Empathic: the Role of Empathy in Child Sexual Offending

Sousa,

Cunha,

Gonçalves

et al. 2023

Eur J Crim Policy Res

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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.

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Empathy in paedophilia and sexual offending against children: a longitudinal extension

Cited by 6 publications

References 64 publications

Non-intimate Relationships and Psychopathic Interpersonal and Affective Deficits as Risk Factors for Criminal Career: A Comparison Between Sex Offenders and Other Offenders

Non-intimate Relationships and Psychopathic Interpersonal and Affective Deficits as Risk Factors for Criminal Career: A Comparison Between Sex Offenders and Other Offenders

Neural processing associated with cognitive empathy in pedophilia and child sexual offending

To Be or Not to Be Empathic: the Role of Empathy in Child Sexual Offending

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