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

Demidova L.Y.; Sheryagina E.V.

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Psychology and Law

Publisher: Moscow State University of Psychology and Education

ISSN (online): 2222-5196

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17759/psylaw

License: CC BY-NC 4.0

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Psychology and Law
2013. Vol. 3, no. 3
ISSN: 2222-5196 (online)

Opportunities and prospects of studying empathy in persons with sexual attraction anomalies ¹²²⁷

Demidova L.Y.
PhD in Psychology, Research Fellow, Laboratory of Forensic Sexology, V. Serbsky National Medical Research Centre for Psychiatry and Narcology, Moscow, Russia
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4357-1105
e-mail: lyubov.demidova@gmail.com

Sheryagina E.V.
Аssociate Рrofessor at the Сhair of Individual and Group Psychotherapy, Counseling and Clinical Psychology Department, Moscow State University of Psychology & Education, Moscow, Russia
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4840-8297
e-mail: sheryagina@gmail.com

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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.

Keywords: sex crimes, empathy, lack of empathy, pedophilia.

Column: Forensic and Clinical Psychology in Legal Context

For Reference

Demidova L.Y., Sheryagina E.V. Opportunities and prospects of studying empathy in persons with sexual attraction anomalies [Elektronnyi resurs]. Psikhologiia i pravo = Psychology and Law, 2013. Vol. 3, no. 3 (In Russ., аbstr. in Engl.)

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