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This essay explores several moral attitudes that undergird a commitment to humanitarian intervention. Humanitarian intervention is usually understood to mean assistance or relief, often in the form of a rescue response by the international community to such emergencies as natural disasters, systematic human rights violations, or genocides that take place within the borders of sovereign states. But the term can equally mean aid before the fact, or prevention, as well as longer-term commitments to international justice that go beyond emergency relief. Whether the aid is relief or prevention, short- or long-term, and however it relates to broader questions of international justice, the same question applies: How do we come to feel the ethical imperative to ally ourselves with those outside our borders? If, as Kant puts it, "ought implies can," then what makes the "oughts" of intervention psychologically feasible? Of course in international affairs the issue is, more typically, whether certain proposed interventions are politically feasible, Do they promote our national interest? Are they cost effective? Even more practically, will food relief get where it is intended to go? Do the rules of military engagement allow us to protect the victims we are trying to help?

Though empathy training is routinely utilized in the treatment of adolescent sexual offenders, there has been little research to support the link between a lack of empathy and sexual offending. Alternatively, self-esteem building is not as frequently incorporated into treatment. This paper reports our exploration of these two variables as predictors of sexual offense. Offenders' (N = 84) scores on a general measure of empathy were no lower than the scores of nonoffenders (N = 113), although their self-esteem scores were significantly lower. Correlation and regression analyses of empathy and self-esteem with relevant background variables tended to support our findings and the validity of our measures. Ambiguities in the conceptualization of empathy may retard our understanding of its usefulness as a treatment and its power as a predictor of sexual offense. Although limitations in study design point to the need for additional sophisticated research, low self-esteem may be a contributor to adolescent sexual offending and may serve as a target for treatment of these youthful offenders.

Treatment of child molesters emphasizes three interrelated constructs: denial, empathy, and cognitive distortions. Thirty child molesters, 30 nonsexual offenders, and 30 controls answered three new tests of denial, empathy, and cognitive distortions anonymously; 30 other child molesters were instructed to "fake good, " and 44 child molesters who were seeking parole were also tested. The Sexual Social Desirability Scale (SSDS) measures attitudes about sex, sexual activities, and intimate sexual relationships. All offender groups attributed significantly more (p ≤ .05) positive characteristics to themselves than did controls. All sexual offender groups denied significantly more (p ≤ .05) negative characteristics than did the control and nonsexual offender groups. Even sexual offenders asked to fake good did not significantly differ in denial from those sexual offenders who answered anonymously or those in assessment for parole. For sexual offenders, denial was not significantly affected by demand characteristics. The Empathy (Empat) scale tested for lack of empathy specific to sexual abuse victims and general lack of empathy. Sexual offenders, even those faking good, showed less sexual abuse empathy than controls (p ≤ .05). In contrast, sexual offender scores of general empathy equaled controls'. The Child Molester Scale (CMS) was developed in an attempt to reduce the effects of socially desirable responding. Sexual offenders assessed for parole reported significantly more (p = .0026) cognitive distortions regarding adult-child sexual activity than did the control group but not less than nonsexual offenders. The SSDS, Empat, and CMS were significantly correlated.

The aim of the two studies presented here was to produce and refine a measure of victim empathy for the assessment of child molesters. In the first study, 61 nonfamilial child molesters completed the Child Molester Empathy Measure (CMEM), a questionnaire designed specifically for this study. The measure assessed empathy in three contexts: (a) toward a child who was in a motor vehicle accident and was disfigured, (b) toward a child who had been sexually molested by an unknown assailant over a period of time, and (c) toward the offender's own victim (s). Results indicated that the measure was both internally reliable and produced stable responses over time. The results also revealed a relative deficit in empathy toward the offender's own victim(s). The goal of the second study was to replicate the data obtained in the first study and compare child molesters' responses with the responses of a group of nonoffenders. Twenty-nine child molesters and 36 community males (nonoffenders) completed the questionnaire. This study also confirmed the internal reliability and test-retest reliability of the CMEM. The discriminant validity of the measure was supported by the child molesters' demonstrated relative deficiency in empathy toward an unknown offender's victim of sexual abuse. However, the child molesters displayed equal empathy toward the accident victim relative to nonoffenders. Additionally, the child molesters displayed significantly less empathy toward their own victims than toward the general sexual abuse victim. The results are discussed in terms of their theoretical and practical implications.