Adverse childhood experiences, emotional intelligence and difficulties in emotion regulation in a sample of italian sex offenders

Abstract

The aim of the following study is to examine in the Italian context, the prevalence of adverse childhood experience in a sample of detainee sexual offenders, and their correlation with risk of recidivism, emotional intelligence and emotion regulation. The sample is composed by 32 inmates. For the study the following instruments were used: ACE, DERS-16, TMMS and RM2000.
The results show high presence of childhood traumas between sex offenders, and a strong correlation between adverse experiences and a higher risk of recidivism, a lower emotional intelligence and more difficulties in the regulation of bad emotions. Clinical consideration about treatment of sex offender are discussed.