Empathy in sexually sadistic offenders: An experimental comparison with non-sadistic sexual offenders

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• 作者：Joachim Nitschke^a ; ^{dr.joachim.nitschke@bezirkskliniken-mfr.de} ; Shota Istrefi^a ; Michael Osterheider^b ; Andreas Mokros^b
• 关键词：Sexual sadism ; Psychopathy ; Empathy ; Cognitive ; Emotional
• 刊名：International Journal of Law and Psychiatry
• 出版年：2012
• 期刊代码：132_01602527
• 类别：med
• 出版时间：May-June, 2012
• 卷：35
• 期：3
• 页码：165-167
• 文件大小：145 K

摘要

Previous studies suggest that severe sexual sadism and psychopathy are phenotypically different, although both are characterized by deficits in emotional processing. We assessed empathic capacity in a sample of 12 sexual sadists in comparison with 23 non-sadistic offenders using the Multifaceted Empathy Test (MET). All participants were forensic patients under mandatory treatment orders who had committed sexual offenses. The MET is a computerized rating task that differentiates and measures cognitive and emotional components of empathy, or perspective-taking versus compassionate components. To identify the effects of possible empathy deficits caused by psychopathic traits, we controlled both samples for psychopathy as a covariate, measured by the Psychopathy Checklist鈥擱evised (PCL-R). According to our results, sexual sadists did not differ from non-sadistic sexual offenders with regard to emotional empathy for either positive or negative stimuli. The results suggest that severe sexual sadism is a distinct, pathological sexual arousal response, not a deficit in emotional processing.