Emotional Recognition Skills of Sex Offenders

Abstract

The emotional recognition accuracy of sex offenders and various other groups was examined in two studies. Somewhat surprisingly, in Study 1 the violent nonsex offenders were the most emotionally sensitive and the most accurate at identifying the emotional state of others. In line with our hypotheses, however, both studies revealed relative deficits in emotional recognition among sex offenders. Contrary to expectations, the child molesters in Study 2 did not display greater deficits in judging the emotions of children relative to their judgments of adults, but they did poorly in judging both groups compared with community controls. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for future research and clinical practice.