Socio-affective dysfunction is a risk-factor for sexual offense recidivism. However, it remains unknown whether men who have sexually offended with and without child victims show differences in eye scan paths and autonomic responsivity while viewing facial expressions of emotion. We examined differences in accuracy of emotion recognition, eye movements, and pupil dilation responses between sex offenders with child victims, sex offenders without child victims, and a group of non-offenders living in the community. Sex offenders without child victims looked for longer at the eyes than sex offenders with child victims and non-offenders. Men without child victims also scored higher for psychopathy linked disinhibition, and these traits were associated with looking longer at the eyes of afraid faces. We found no evidence for group differences in accuracy, visual attention to the mouth, or pupil dilation responses. Our findings have implications for understanding the nature of socio-affective dysfunction in sexual offenders.

社会情感功能障碍是性犯罪再犯的危险因素。然而，在有和没有儿童受害者的情况下遭受性侵犯的男性在观察情绪面部表情时是否会在眼睛扫描路径和自主反应方面表现出差异仍然未知。我们研究了有儿童受害者的性犯罪者、没有儿童受害者的性犯罪者以及生活在社区中的一群非犯罪者在情绪识别、眼球运动和瞳孔扩张反应的准确性方面的差异。与有儿童受害者和非犯罪者的性犯罪者相比，没有儿童受害者的性犯罪者盯着眼睛看的时间更长。没有儿童受害者的男性在与解除抑制相关的精神病方面得分也更高，这些特征与长时间注视恐惧面孔的眼睛有关。我们没有发现在准确性、对嘴巴的视觉注意力或瞳孔扩张反应方面存在群体差异的证据。我们的研究结果对理解性犯罪者社会情感功能障碍的性质具有重要意义。