A multimethod examination of Theory of Mind deficits as potential correlates of general and sexual offending

Theory of mind has been hypothesised to play a role in offending. More specifically, a reduced ability to understand the minds of other people is believed to place individuals at greater risk of victimising others. Empirical research on this relationship is, however, scant and often contradictory. The overarching aim of this thesis was to better understand potential links between theory of mind deficits and offending. We focused on self-reported offending behaviour along with other potential risk factors for offending, such as interest in committing sexual offences against children and criminal thinking-beliefs and attitudes that support and maintain offending behaviour. We also focused on sexual offending against children as a specific type of offending behaviour that may be underpinned, in part, by reduced theory of mind abilities. The thesis had four specific research aims: (1) to test the relationship between theory of mind and self-reported general offending and sexual offending, (2) to assess the relationship between theory of mind and criminal thinking, (3) to examine the relationship between theory of mind and the self-reported interest in committing sexual offences against children, and finally (4) to explore whether there was evidence of a theory of nasty minds-i.e., a distortion of theory of mind content rather than impaired ability-in individuals who had perpetrated or were at risk of perpetrating sexual offences against children.

We carried out a systematic review and a series of six empirical studies in online community samples, using a wide variety of theory of mind tasks, to address the aims outlined above. Overall, our results implied that any relationship between theory of mind and offending is complex. Theory of mind is not a single ability but rather reflects abilities to perform different levels of perspective taking and different types of insight (e.g., cognitive versus affective insight). Rather than demonstrate universal theory of mind impairment in those at risk of criminality, specific levels and types of theory of mind appeared linked to specific criminal thinking patterns and to certain types of criminal behaviour. Our focused look at sexual offending behaviour and interest in committing sexual offences against children implied that theory of mind deficits (in terms of content and ability) are not major factors in this type of offending-at least when adopting our methods and design. The thesis discussion parses these compelling but mixed findings, exploring limitations, lessons learnt, future directions as well as implications for offence prevention.