ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the relationship between bullying and empathy in a large group of male (n = 493) and female (n = 48) prisoners in Croatia. Empathy was measured using the Basic Empathy Scale, bullying was measured using the Direct and Indirect Prisoner Behaviour Checklist (DIPC-R), and additional information about other pre-incarceration (i.e. index offence), and contextual factors (i.e. subjected to disciplinary proceedings) was also collected. The results suggested that males who bullied physically and coercively had significantly lower affective empathy than those who did not, while females who bullied verbally had significantly higher cognitive empathy. Multivariate analyses suggested that low affective empathy was not independently related to bullying after controlling for other important factors. Interestingly, however, exploratory analyses suggested that low affective empathy was significantly related to factors such as a younger age and having received a longer sentence. This suggests that low empathy might be more important for explaining pre-incarceration behaviours than prison bullying.
