The Basic Empathy Scale

Abstract

Empathy is an essential core component of emotion regulation and moral development; both constructs play a central role on the explanation of antisocial and disruptive behaviour. An accurate evaluation of empathy is central to a better understanding of antisocial behaviour. The Basic Empathy Scale (BES), developed and tested by Jolliffe and Farrington in 2006, has been cited more than 850 times up to 2018, and has been translated into several languages, including Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese, and French. Previous assessment tools evaluating empathy were focused on emotional empathy, mostly evaluating sympathy more than empathy. The BES was the first assessment tool to fully assess the concept of empathy, including the affective and cognitive dimensions of empathy. This review has two main objectives: 1) to summarise and compare the validity and reliability findings in each country where the BES has been tested and 2) to review studies testing the relationships between empathy and constructs related to antisocial behaviour. Several international studies indicate that the BES has excellent psychometric properties, including validity and reliability. The majority of studies using this scale support the importance of empathy for understanding antisocial behaviour, as well as the need to separately evaluate affective and cognitive empathy. Future scientific directions and implications for criminology are discussed.