Citation

Marshall WL, Hamilton K, Fernandez Y. Sex. Abuse 2001; 13(2): 123-130.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada K7L 3N6.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2001, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

11294123

Abstract

An attempt was made to examine the thesis that the apparent empathy deficits in child molesters are simply another aspect of their self-serving tendency to distort information by, in this case, failing to recognize victim harm. Thirty-four child molesters were compared on a victim empathy measure and a measure of cognitive distortions, with 24 nonsex offenders and 28 nonoffending males. Child molesters displayed greater cognitive distortions than the other subjects and their greatest empathy deficits were toward their own victims. Consistent with the theory being examined it was found that the empathy scores of the child molesters toward their own victims were significantly correlated with the responses to the cognitive distortions scale. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for theory and practice.

Language: en