Empathy for Pain in People Convicted of Sexual Offences, 2020-2023

The work forms part of a project that employed a solution-focused approach to examine the psychological processes that could be targeted to ensure potential high-risk groups, such as men who view online child sexual exploitation material but have not engaged in contact sexual offences, do not harm children. The collection contains data from participants with convictions for sexual offences and control participants living in the community. All participants were asked to rate the valence and intensity of visual stimuli depicting other people in painful and non-painful situations. Eye tracking was used to record participants pupillary responses during each trial. Results showed differences in the pupil dilation response between people who have sexually offended against child victims and control participants.