title: Interpreting Child Sexual Abuse: Empathy and Offense-Supportive Cognitions among Child Sex Offenders.
abstract: Researchers have suggested that child sex offenders hold distorted views on social interactions with children. Misinterpreting children's behavior and intentions could lead to sexually abusive behavior toward children. It is further suggested that the interpretation process is influenced by offenders' offense-supportive cognitions and levels of empathy. To examine the relationships between these three concepts, 47 contact offenders completed self-reports on offense-supportive cognitions and empathy. Vignettes were developed to assess the extent to which offenders attributed responsibility, benefit, and complicity to children in hypothetical child molestation incidents. This study showed that cognitions that justify sexual offending against children seem to diminish the threshold for sexual assault by assigning more cooperation and willingness of the victim in a child molestation incident.
authors.affiliation: a Erasmus University Medical Center , Rotterdam , the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Inge Sarah
authors.initials: IS
authors.lastname: Hempel
authors.forename: Nicole Maria Leonarda
authors.initials: NM
authors.lastname: Buck
authors.forename: Eveline Stefanie
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: van Vugt
authors.forename: Hjalmar Johan Carel
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: van Marle
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002650:Child Abuse, Sexual / Q000523:psychology*; D003071:Cognition; D019548:Crime Victims / Q000523:psychology*; D057237:Criminals / Q000523:psychology*; D003674:Defense Mechanisms; D004645:Empathy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012647:Self-Assessment
keywords: attribution; child molester; child sexual abuse; cognitive distortions; empathy; interpretation process; offense-supportive cognitions; sexual offender