title: Mindreading abilities in sexual offenders: an analysis of theory of mind processes.
abstract: The paper aims to assess the theory of mind (ToM) of sexual offenders. We administered to 21 sexual offenders and to 21 nonoffenders two classical first- and second-order ToM tasks, a selection of six Strange Stories, and a semi-structured interview, the Theory of Mind Assessment Scale (Th.o.m.a.s), which provides a multi-dimensional evaluation of ToM, investigating first- vs. third-person and egocentric vs. allocentric perspectives. Results show that sexual offenders performed worse than controls on second-order ToM tasks, on Strange Stories and on each of the Th.o.m.a.s dimensions, whereas they did as well as the control group on first-order ToM tasks. A detailed analysis of participants' performance on Th.o.m.a.s. showed that sex offenders performed worse on the third-person than on the first-person ToM scale, and worse on the allocentric than on the egocentric perspective; these findings did not apply to the controls. Implications for future research and treatment are discussed.
authors.affiliation: University of Turin, Department of Psychology and Center for Cognitive Sciences, Turin, Italy. nicoletta.castellino@gmail.com
authors.forename: Nicoletta
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Castellino
authors.forename: Francesca M
authors.initials: FM
authors.lastname: Bosco
authors.forename: William L
authors.initials: WL
authors.lastname: Marshall
authors.forename: Liam E
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Marshall
authors.forename: Fabio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Veglia
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011581:Psychological Tests; D012307:Risk Factors; D012742:Sex Offenses / Q000523:psychology*; D056345:Theory of Mind