@article{ref1,
title="Empathy in sexually sadistic offenders: An experimental comparison with non-sadistic sexual offenders",
journal="International journal of law and psychiatry",
year="2012",
author="Nitschke, Joachim and Istrefi, Shota and Osterheider, Michael and Mokros, Andreas",
volume="35",
number="3",
pages="165-167",
abstract="Previous studies suggest that severe sexual sadism and psychopathy are phenotypically different, although both are characterized by deficits in emotional processing. We assessed empathic capacity in a sample of 12 sexual sadists in comparison with 23 non-sadistic offenders using the Multifaceted Empathy Test (MET). All participants were forensic patients under mandatory treatment orders who had committed sexual offenses. The MET is a computerized rating task that differentiates and measures cognitive and emotional components of empathy, or perspective-taking versus compassionate components. To identify the effects of possible empathy deficits caused by psychopathic traits, we controlled both samples for psychopathy as a covariate, measured by the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R). According to our results, sexual sadists did not differ from non-sadistic sexual offenders with regard to emotional empathy for either positive or negative stimuli. The results suggest that severe sexual sadism is a distinct, pathological sexual arousal response, not a deficit in emotional processing.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0160-2527",
doi="10.1016/j.ijlp.2012.02.003",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijlp.2012.02.003"
}