Emotional intelligence in incarcerated sexual offenders with sexual sadism

ABSTRACT

Emotional intelligence (EI) is defined by the ability to perceive, manage, and reason about emotions in oneself and others. Studies have reported deficits in EI abilities among certain antisocial populations such as individuals with psychopathy, and enhanced performance among sexual offenders. Despite EI's relevance to offending behaviour, the association between EI and paraphilic offending has been under-studied. We examined the association between EI, sexual offending, and sexual sadism in 80 incarcerated men with sexual offences and 207 incarcerated men with non-sexual offences. EI was assessed using the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT). Sadism was measured using the Severe Sexual Sadism Scale (SeSaS). Results showed that SeSaS scores were positively associated with Strategic EI (the ability to understand and manage emotions), but were not significantly related to Experiential EI. This may reflect core characteristics of sexual sadism including domination and manipulation, challenging the prevalent notion that higher EI is invariably positive.

Practice impact statement

The study findings suggest that high EI may not always promote prosocial behaviour, which has significant implications for clinical practice. For example, treatment programmes aimed at generally improving EI-related abilities (e.g. emotion regulation) could be refined towards more specific or individualised strategies (e.g. how to effectively and prosocially use EI skills).

KEYWORDS:

• Emotional intelligence
• sexual offending
• sexual sadism
• MSCEIT
• SeSaS

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Grants R01MH114028 (C.L.H.), R01MH070539, R01DA026505, and R01DA026964 (K.A.K). We are grateful to the staff and inmates of the Wisconsin Department of Corrections, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, and the New Mexico Corrections Department for their support and assistance in making this research possible. We are also grateful to the staff of the Mind Research Network for their assistance with data collection and preparation. The authors take responsibility for the integrity of the data and accuracy of the data analyses.

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Institute of Mental Health [Grant Numbers R01DA026505, R01DA026964, R01MH070539, R01MH114028].