Opportunities and prospects of studying empathy in persons with sexual attraction anomalies

The article provides an analysis of the techniques most often used to diagnose empathic ability in sex offenders, and discusses the prospects of using a new projective technique for studying empathy in patients with abnormalities of sexual desire. The analysis showed that the widespread questionnaires have drawbacks that hamper their use in the forensic psychology. A new projective technique for the diagnosis of empathy is proposed, discussing the results of its application on a sample of 47 male subjects, 26 of which were experimental group and underwent comprehensive forensic psychological and psychiatric examination in connection with their commission of sexual offenses against minors. The hypothesis that the experimental group subjects would have a reduced ability to empathy compared with normal group, was confirmed partially. It has been shown that persons without disorders of sexual preference, committed crimes against sexual integrity of children, have the greatest empathy deficit, but persons with pedophilia talk with your child about feelings more often and in this sense they are even more empathetic to them than the norm group.

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