Developing Empathy In Sexual Offenders: The Value Of Offence Re-enactments
(Stephen D. Webster ; Louise E. Bowers ; Ruth E. Mann ; William L. Marshall)
While the enhancement of empathy in sexual offenders is a typical treatment goal, recent research has suggested that the lack of empathy displayed by sex offenders is victim-specific rather than general. As such, an important component of sex offender treatment is the enhancement of victim-specific empathy. The current study probed the ability of different role play schemes to enhance victim-specific empathy. Participants were 33 men who participated in a treatment program centered on offense re-enactment and a matched group of 33 men who participated in an identical treatment program except that instead of the offense re-enactments, the matched group completed extra role plays designed to enhance empathy for the short- and long-term consequences for their victims. Participants completed several questionnaires before and after the interventions that measured generic empathy, attitudes toward women, attitudes toward sex offenses, and victim-specific empathy. Results suggested that the offense re-enactment group was better able to identify negative consequences for victims and was better able to identify cognitive distortions about their offending behavior and about women in general. The non-re-enactment group displayed better understanding of negative lifestyle consequences for victims. While the findings suggest that offense re-enactment may bring additional benefits over other types of victim empathy work, the differences between the groups were not statistically significant. Future research should attempt to replicate these results with larger samples and additional measures of empathy
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