Recognition of emotions among male adult sexual offenders in forensic and prison facilities: A thesis methodological design

Accurate recognition of emotions is fundamental in communication (verbal and non-verbal) and plays a role in the display of prosocial behaviours (Cigna et al., 2015; Marshall et al., 1995). Despite a large consensus, studies hypothesized that male adult sexual offenders exhibit deficit in the recognition of emotions (Tiberi, 2018). We investigate this ability among male adult sexual offenders in forensic and prison facilities. The design is based on three emotion evaluation sets: Recognition of facial expressions of emotions (morphed dynamic stimuli), vocal expressions (two-conditions: semantic and prosody) and bodily expressions (two-conditions: congruent and non-congruent). Additionally, eye-tracking measures will be collected for the facial and bodily expressions in order to explore the ocular pathways. Finally, sociodemographic data (age, IQ), diagnostic profile (Axis I & II, psychopathy) and risk of recidivism rates will be collected. We assume that sexual offenders would exhibit a deficit in the recognition of specific negative emotions (Chapman et al., 2018). No hypothesis was expressed for the ocular pathway. Results will be discussed in light of the international literature on violent populations. Evaluation and therapeutic recommendations will be formulated on social cognition among male adult sexual offenders.