Abstract
A lack of empathy is commonly seen as one of the central features of sexual aggression but there is little evidence to justify this assumption. Indeed a recent study, Beckett, Beech, Fisher & Fordham (1994), indicated that convicted child molesters showed more emotional empathy, but less cognitive empathy than a non‐offender comparison group. The present study was designed to test the proposition that this finding is not an anomaly but part of a more general trend for empathic emotion to disrupt the learning of accurate perspective taking. Subjects were assessed for levels of cognitive and affective empathy and then their ability to recognize the abusive quality of sexual aggression was evaluated. Paralleling the Beckett et al. finding the present results indicated that recognition of abuse is enhanced by appropriate cognitive skills and habits but disrupted by empathic emotional arousal. The implications of these results for programmes aimed at enhancing victim empathy are discussed.
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