Exploring Neural Correlates of Empathy in Juveniles Who Have Sexually Offended

Neuroscience, Empathy, and Violent Crime in an Incarcerated Population: A Narrative Review

Empathy is a fundamental construct that allows individuals to perceive and understand the cognitive and emotional state of others. Empathy is not only a psychological and sociological concept; it also heavily impacts our daily lives by affecting our decisions and actions. Empathy is connected to and involves specific parts of the brain which, if damaged or of reduced volume, can lead to actions that are morally unjust, aggressive, or simply denoting a lack of understanding and sensitivity. The literature affirms that the low level of empathy, guilt, embarrassment, and moral reasoning displayed by violent and psychopathic criminals is strongly associated with empathy-linked brain regions that are smaller in size or less developed. The aim of this review is to show empirical data over the last 5 years on the connection between empathy and neuroscience among violent and psychopathic offenders, reflecting on future research on the topic.

Exploring Emotion Regulation in Juveniles Who Have Sexually Offended: An fMRI Study

This exploratory study compared juveniles who sexually offend to nonoffending juveniles in their capacities to behaviorally and neurologically regulate, or reappraise, negative emotions. Participants were 39 juvenile males, including 10 healthy, nonoffending control subjects and 29 juveniles who sexually offend, comprising 12 juveniles who sexually offend with history of child sexual abuse. Participants completed a clinical assessment and a reappraisal task during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Difficulties in Emotional Regulation Scale results showed significantly less difficulties in emotion regulation among controls compared to juveniles who sexually offend, but when self-rating reappraisal abilities during the functional magnetic resonance imaging, all groups obtained comparable results. The imaging results showed no significant differences in fronto-temporal regions between controls and juveniles who sexually offend. Differences were found in other regions indicated in cognitive control, working memory, and emotional processing between controls and juveniles who sexually offend as well as between juveniles who sexually offend and those without history of child sexual abuse. Findings suggest that juveniles who sexually offend are capable of emotion regulation.