Empathy and repeat offending of young offenders in Argentina

ABSTRACT

Low empathy is an important psychological construct for understanding persistent criminal and antisocial behavior. In this study the affective empathy (the capacity to experience the emotions of others) and cognitive empathy (the capacity to understand the emotions of others) of 100 young male offenders (aged 16-17) in Buenos Aires was assessed using the Basic Empathy Scale. The level of empathy of young offenders who were repeat offenders (N=49) was then compared to one-time offenders (N=51). In addition, data on family criminality, school achievement and socioeconomic status was also obtained for both groups. The results showed that repeat offenders had significantly lower affective and cognitive empathy, and that these relationships held independently of the other related factors. These findings suggest that low empathy may be an important explanatory factor for repeat offending of juveniles in Argentina, and therefore may be a useful target for interventions designed to reduce repeat offending

KEYWORDS:

• Empathy
• Basic Empathy Scale
• Argentina
• Repeat offending
• Young offenders

Acknowledgments

Dr. Mirian S. Orlando was honoured to be a Visiting Scholar at the Institute of Criminology of Cambridge University by Professor Farrington, during the first term of 2020, who kindly accepted to co-author this article along with Professor Jolliffe.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Both recidivist and one-time offending groups were over 95% male.

2. This study was part of a larger investigation (see Orlando, 2020).

Additional information

Funding

This paper received no specific Grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for- profit sectors.

Notes on contributors

Mirian S. Orlando

Mirian S. Orlando PHD, PSY.T, B.A., M.A., Psychoanalyst (I.P.A.) Chief Executive: National Supreme Court of Argentina. She is a Forensic Psychologist at the Criminal Law Court of Argentina -Juvenile Tribunal where is in charge of monitoring Young Offenders in order to their resocialization. She has monitored more than 3000 young offenders over the years. In 2020 Orlando was awarded a doctorate titled: “Resilience and Socio-Emotional Competencies in Recidivist and non-Recidivist Young Offenders”. She was advised by Sir Professor Michael L. Rutter (2015-2020) from King College London. In 2020 Orlando was honoured with a Visiting Scholar at the Institute of Criminology of Cambridge University hosted by Professor David P. Farrington.

David P. Farrington

David P. Farrington, O.B.E., is Emeritus Professor of Psychological Criminology at Cambridge University. He has received the Stockholm Prize in Criminology and he has been President of the American Society of Criminology. His major research interest is in developmental criminology, and he is Director of the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development, which is a prospective longitudinal survey of over 400 London males from age 8 to age 61. In addition to 879 published journal articles and book chapters on criminological and psychological topics, he has published 118 books, monographs and government publications, and 164 shorter publications (total = 1,161).

Darrick Jolliffe

Darrick Jolliffe, MPhil., PhD is Head of the School of Law and Criminology and Professor of Criminology at the University of Greenwich. With David Farrington he developed the Basic Empathy Scale and recently produced an edited volume based on results from studies which used this scale (Empathy versus Offending, Aggression and Bullying: Advancing Knowledge using the Basic Empathy Scale). He is Co-Editor in Chief of the Journal of Developmental and Life-Course Criminology and has published extensively on developmental criminology and individual differences and offending. He has been funded by numerous national and international agencies to conduct evaluations of interventions designed to prevent and reduce reoffending.