Assessing Perspective-Taking Among Sexual Offenders, Nonsexual Criminals, and Nonoffenders

Abstract

Lack of victim empathy is often cited as a factor in sexual offending. Empathy is a complex reaction that requires both perspective-taking skills and sympathetic feelings. Some treatment programs for sexual offenders provide victim empathy training based on the assumption that increased awareness of victim suffering should inhibit further offenses. Perspective-taking deficits, however, may be irrelevant to certain offenders who are indifferent or even attracted to the suffering of their victims. In the present study a diverse group of sexual offenders and comparison subjects were administered two new measures of perspective-taking ability. The sexual offenders, in general, showed greater deficits than did the comparison subjects. As expected, deficits were most noticeable in those offenders who were not known to have used overt force and those who were not intoxicated during the commission of their offenses. The present study supports the utility of using perspective-taking measures with sexual offenders.