Empathy and Attachment in Relation to Violent vs. Non-Violent Offense History Among Jail Inmates

Abstract

One hundred nineteen male and 67 female violent and nonviolent offenders incarcerated in the New York City jail system completed questionnaires measuring affective and cognitive empathy, history of attachment and current attachment. They were compared to a control group of 63 males and 67 females enrolled in general equivalency diploma courses in New York City. Multiple analysis of variance was used to compare the groups and the dependent variables and the Pearson r correlation coefficient was used to assess the relationship between empathy and attachment. The male offenders as a whole scored higher on affective empathy than the control group with the nonviolent male offenders scoring significantly higher on affective empathy than the control group males. However, after age was used a covariate, the groups were no longer significantly different on affective empathy. No significant differences were found among the female groups on cognitive and affective empathy. There was also no relationship found for the male or female groups between empathy and history of attachment. The implication of the results for future research on empathy in criminal behavior as well as the lifecourse development of empathy in men, was discussed.