Childhood Victimization and Lack of Empathy as Predictors of Sexual Offending Against Women and Children

Abstract

A model of sexual deviance is presented which illustrates that lack of empathy mediates the associations between childhood victimization experiences and adult risk for sexual offending against women and children. For 188 incarcerated sexual offenders, admissions of victims and disclosures of childhood experiences of abuse and early exposure to pornography were recorded from criminal history, a sexual history questionnaire, and polygraph examinations. Empathy was assessed using victim- and abuse-specific measures. Structural equation modeling was used to test a model that included the direct effects of childhood victimization on number and type of victims, as well as the mediated effects through lack of empathy. Offenders who reported child sexual abuse as children and early exposure to pornography displayed less empathy for children in abusive situations and they reported more child victims. Offenders who reported physical abuse displayed less empathy for women in abusive situations and they reported more adult victims.