Comparing avoidant attachment and lack of empathy in Sexual abusers and ordinary people

The extent of sexual violence is to the extent of human history and it is one of the problems that humanity has been grappling with and can be considered one of the serious psychosocial deviations. Sexual abusiveness is one of the anomalies through which a person seeks and reaches sexual pleasure and satisfaction by abusing another person. In the research literature related to psychopathology of sexual abusers’ personalities, the relationship between their attachment patterns and problems with abusive behavior has been of a particular interest to researchers and clinicians. The aim of this study is to compare attachment styles and the ability to empathy between offenders of child sexual abuse and ordinary people. In order to do this, in a comparative study, 33 sexual abuser and 33 normal person were selected through availability sampling method, and evaluated for attachment style, interpersonal reactions and the ability to empathy. Multivariate analysis of variances showed that secure attachment style is the prevailing attachment style among the ordinary individuals and avoidant attachment style is the dominant style among the sexual abusers. In addition, the results showed a higher ability of ordinary people in sympathetic attention index and a higher score in individual distress index among the sexual abusers. It seems, insecure attachment style with interference in the process of empathy, may be associated with sexual abusiveness.