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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Aug 28, 2025

Exploring the Use of Isolated Expressions and Film Clips to Evaluate Emotion Recognition by People with Traumatic Brain Injury

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Published on: May 15, 2016

Evaluator empathy in risk assessment interviews.

Kathryn Scott¹, Marcus T Boccaccini¹, Gabriele Trupp¹

¹Department of Psychology and Philosophy, Sam Houston State University.

Law and Human Behavior

|September 15, 2022

Summary

Forensic evaluators rarely use high empathy, with most preferring low to moderate approaches. Higher empathy correlated with better understanding but not risk assessment accuracy.

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Published on: August 26, 2011

Area of Science:

Forensic Psychology
Legal Psychology

Background:

The role of empathy in forensic assessments is debated, with concerns about potential harm versus benefits for rapport.
This study examines how experienced forensic evaluators utilize empathy during risk assessment interviews.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the prevalence and patterns of empathy use among forensic evaluators.
To explore the relationship between evaluator empathy levels and their attitudes, practices, and perceptions of evaluees.

Main Methods:

200 experienced forensic evaluators participated in a simulated parole risk assessment interview.
Evaluators selected interview questions varying in empathy levels and rated their perceptions of the evaluee.

Main Results:

Latent class analysis revealed low (46.0%) and moderate (43.0%) empathy subgroups were most common, with a small high-empathy subgroup (11.0%).
Higher empathy was linked to supportive attitudes and practices, and better self-reported understanding of the evaluee.
Empathy levels did not significantly correlate with opinions on the evaluee's risk or parole suitability.

Conclusions:

Significant variation exists in forensic evaluators' empathy use, reflecting diverse evaluation styles.
While low to moderate empathy is prevalent, high empathy use is uncommon among these evaluators.
Findings contribute to understanding evaluator differences and the nuanced application of empathy in forensic contexts.