ABSTRACT

Emotional intelligence (EI) is defined by the ability to perceive, manage, and reason about emotions in oneself and others. Studies have reported deficits in EI abilities among certain antisocial populations such as individuals with psychopathy, and enhanced performance among sexual offenders. Despite EI's relevance to offending behaviour, the association between EI and paraphilic offending has been under-studied. We examined the association between EI, sexual offending, and sexual sadism in 80 incarcerated men with sexual offences and 207 incarcerated men with non-sexual offences. EI was assessed using the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT). Sadism was measured using the Severe Sexual Sadism Scale (SeSaS). Results showed that SeSaS scores were positively associated with Strategic EI (the ability to understand and manage emotions), but were not significantly related to Experiential EI. This may reflect core characteristics of sexual sadism including domination and manipulation, challenging the prevalent notion that higher EI is invariably positive.

Practice impact statement

The study findings suggest that high EI may not always promote prosocial behaviour, which has significant implications for clinical practice. For example, treatment programmes aimed at generally improving EI-related abilities (e.g. emotion regulation) could be refined towards more specific or individualised strategies (e.g. how to effectively and prosocially use EI skills).

摘要

情商 (EI) 定义为感知、管理和推理自己和他人情绪的能力。研究报告了某些反社会人群（例如精神病患者）的 EI 能力缺陷，以及性犯罪者的表现增强。尽管 EI 与犯罪行为相关，但 EI 与性倒错犯罪之间的关联尚未得到充分研究。我们检查了 80 名有性犯罪的被监禁男子和 207 名有非性犯罪的被监禁男子的 EI、性犯罪和性虐待之间的关联。使用 Mayer-Salovey-Caruso 情商测试 (MSCEIT) 评估 EI。使用严重性虐待量表 (SeSaS) 测量虐待狂。结果表明，SeSaS 分数与战略 EI（理解和管理情绪的能力）呈正相关，但与体验 EI 没有显着相关。这可能反映了性虐待的核心特征，包括支配和操纵，挑战了较高的 EI 总是积极的普遍观念。

实践影响陈述

研究结果表明，高 EI 可能并不总是促进亲社会行为，这对临床实践具有重要意义。例如，旨在普遍提高 EI 相关能力（例如情绪调节）的治疗计划可以改进为更具体或个性化的策略（例如如何有效和亲社会地使用 EI 技能）。