Trigger Warning: The content can be distressing for some Readers
Recurrent sexual cravings, impulses, and fantasies involving minors are hallmarks of paedophilia. According to the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Issues, The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.; American Psychiatric Association, 2013) restricts the concept of minors to prepubertal children, whereas (ICD-10; World Health Organization, 1992) the term includes prepubertal and early pubertal children. Studies based on population data indicate that 1% to 5% of men report having pedophilic interest.
One dynamic risk factor for child sexual offenses is empathy. However, there are a number of issues with empathy studies when it comes to child sexual abuse. Firstly, earlier research was unable to distinguish between sexual offenders who were pedophilic and those who were not. Secondly, no differentiation is established between affective and cognitive empathy. Third, there hasn’t been enough discussion of cognitive and affective empathy for the emotional states of particular age groups (adults and children). Using self-reports and objective behavioral measurements, the current study addresses these weaknesses by examining both offending and non offending pedophiles as well as several facets of empathy.
The “NeMUP” study, which stands for “Neural Mechanisms Underlying Pedophilia and Sexual Offending Against Children,” included all participants. A total of 128 non offending teleiophilic male controls (TC), 72 pedophilic males who never committed hands-on child sexual offenses (P-CSO), and 85 pedophilic men who committed handson child sexual offenses (P+CSO) were included in the study. The Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) and the Multifaceted Empathy Test (MET) were used to evaluate a number of affective and cognitive dimensions of empathy. While P+CSO performed worse than TC (P-CSO intermediate) on self-reports (IRI) measuring cognitive perspective-taking skills, a performance-based measure (MET) showed that P-CSO was able to distinguish between distinct emotional states more effectively than P+CSO (TC intermediate). Furthermore, when P+CSO and P-CSO observed youngsters, they had significantly higher affective resonance (MET), which was correlated with higher levels of self-reported personal discomfort in social contexts (IRI).
The findings show that weakened cognitive empathy is specific to the group of pedophilic offenders and is not related to pedophilia in general also suggest that pedophilic men have a greater overall affective empathy resonance with children, but only non-offending pedophiles have superior cognitive empathy abilities. This finding may serve as a deterrent against sexual offenses. Taken together, these results highlight how critical it is to consider many aspects of empathy when addressing child sexual offenses and pedophilia.
The study highlights the complexities of empathy in pedophilic individuals, distinguishing between offenders and non-offenders. While pedophilic offenders exhibit weaker cognitive empathy, non-offending pedophiles demonstrate better cognitive empathy skills, which may act as a protective factor against offending. Additionally, both groups show heightened affective empathy towards children. These findings underscore the importance of examining multiple dimensions of empathy when addressing child sexual offenses and developing targeted interventions.
