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Empathy and Offending

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Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice

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Overview

Empathy is an individual difference that has been theoretically linked with an increased likelihood of offending, particularly serious offending. In contrast to the strong theoretical relationship, however, the empirical evidence of the relationship between empathy and offending is lacking. This is problematic as many offender treatment programs are designed to address this supposed “lack of empathy.” In order to further knowledge about empathy and offending, the measurement of empathy should be improved and studies should attempt to use more sensitive measures of offending (e.g., self-reports). Prospective longitudinal studies are needed to establish whether a lack of empathy is a correlate, a risk factor, or a causal risk factor for offending. Only if empathy is the latter would empathy enhancement be expected to reduce the likelihood of future offending.

Introduction

Empathy is an elusive construct, and as a result, clarifying its association with offending has challenged...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Law, University of Greenwich, Old Royal Navy Campus, Park Row, London, UK

    Darrick Jolliffe

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  1. Darrick Jolliffe
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Correspondence to Darrick Jolliffe .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement (NSCR), Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Gerben Bruinsma

  2. VU University Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Gerben Bruinsma

  3. Department of Criminology, Law and Society, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA

    David Weisburd

  4. Faculty of Law, The Hebrew University, Mt. Scopus, Jerusalem, Israel

    David Weisburd

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Jolliffe, D. (2014). Empathy and Offending. In: Bruinsma, G., Weisburd, D. (eds) Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5690-2_508

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5690-2_508

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-5689-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-5690-2

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