Sexual Offense, between Reason and the Heart: a Look from Cognitive and Emotional Processes

Researching the etiology of sexual offenses from a cognitive and emotional dimension demonstrates a prominent increase in the last three decades. However, this reflection article's specific objective is to reveal the clear excesses, violations, absences and needs in developing and treating the convergent constructs in both dimensions. To do so, the way cognitive processes influence sexual offenses will be explained first. Then, we will state how said actions can be explained based on theories of emotions. Finally, we will attempt to establish an interpretative proposal for the problem that includes the cognitive and emotional dimensions, as well as fundamental aspects to understand sexual offenses. Therefore, it was concluded that developing new and improved theories that articulate emotions and cognitions is necessary to properly explain offender's movements in committing sex crimes.