A comparison between male prisoners incarcerated for sexual crimes and men with no criminal history in terms of alexithymia, empathy and guilt-shame relations

The main purpose of this research is to compare male prisoners incarcerated for sexual crimes and men with no criminal history in terms of alexithymia, empathy, and guilt-shame relations. The research sample consists of 255 prisoners who are convicted and detained for crimes against sexual immunity in the Metris T2 Type Closed Penitentiary Institution affili-ated with the Ministry of Justice's General Directorate of Prisons and Detention Houses in the Esenler district of Istanbul province, and men who have no criminal history. It consisted of 229 men who were not involved in crime. All participants are between the ages of 18-75. In the study, data were collected using the Informed Consent Form, Guilt-Shame Scale, Toronto Alexithymia Scale, Toronto Empathy Scale, with printed forms filled out by face-to-face interviews with inmate participants, and online and printed forms with external participants. SPSS-25 program was used to analyze the data. Findings showed that inmate participants had greater Toronto Alexithymia Scale total scores than external participants; with Difficulty Recognizing Emotions; and Difficulty Ex-pressing Emotions sub-scores were higher than external participants. As the guilt score increases in prisoner participants, and external participants, the empathy score increases. There is a significant negative correlation be-tween the Toronto Alexithymia Scale total score and the Toronto Empathy Scale score in inmate participants. Toronto Empathy Scale scores and Difficulty Recogniz-ing Emotions, Difficulty Expressing Emotions, and Expressive Thinking.There is a significant negative correlation between scores. External participants had Toronto Empathy Scale scores and Difficulty Recognizing Emotions, Difficulty Expressing Emotions and Expressive Thinking. There is a significant negative correlation between scores.