Men with intellectual disabilities with a history of sexual offending: empathy for victims of sexual and non-sexual crimes.
Sex offenders with ID show the biggest empathy gap toward their own victims, giving you a clear treatment target.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Researchers compared empathy levels in three groups of adult men with intellectual disability. One group had a history of sexual offenses. The other two groups had no offense history.
Each man answered questions about how he would feel if someone else got hurt. The team also asked how each man would feel if his own past victim got hurt.
What they found
Sex offenders scored lower on general empathy than non-offenders. Their scores dropped even lower when asked about their own victim.
The gap shows the men feel less sorry for the person they actually harmed than for a stranger.
How this fits with other research
A 2002 review by P et al. found zero clinical trials for treating sex offenders with ID. The new study fills that gap by giving the first solid data on where to aim treatment.
Murphy et al. (2007) ran a small CBT pilot and saw victim empathy rise after therapy. Their result pairs well with the new finding: if you can measure the deficit, you can try to fix it.
Clinicians interviewed in Bellon-Harn et al. (2020) warned that empathy work moves slowly with autistic sex offenders. The new numbers back up their view and add a clear benchmark for progress.
Why it matters
You now have an evidence-based reason to target victim-specific empathy in your behavior plans. Add role-play scenes that let the client practice seeing the world through his victim’s eyes. Track empathy scores before and after each block of sessions to see if the gap closes.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: The objectives were (a) to compare the general empathy abilities of men with intellectual disabilities (IDs) who had a history of sexual offending to men with IDs who had no known history of illegal behaviour; and (b) to determine whether men with IDs who had a history of sexual offending had different levels of specific victim empathy towards their own victim, in comparison with an unknown victim of sexual crime, and a victim of non-sexual crime, and make comparisons with non-offenders. METHODS: Men with mild IDs (n=35) were asked to complete a measure of general empathy and a measure of specific victim empathy. All participants completed the victim empathy measure in relation to a hypothetical victim of a sexual offence, and a non-sexual crime, while additionally, men with a history of sexual offending were asked to complete this measure in relation to their own most recent victim. RESULTS: Men with a history of sexual offending had significantly lower general empathy, and specific victim empathy towards an unknown sexual offence victim, than men with no known history of illegal behaviour. Men with a history of sexual offending had significantly lower victim empathy for their own victim than for an unknown sexual offence victim. Victim empathy towards an unknown victim of a non-sexual crime did not differ significantly between the two groups. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that it is important include interventions within treatment programmes that attempt to improve empathy and perspective-taking.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2015 · doi:10.1111/jir.12137