The findings of the study suggest that child sexual abusers do not appear to be significantly poorer at recognizing others' emotions compared with a nonoffender sample. Examination of the effects of priming within the child sexual abuser and nonoffender groups showed that recognition of surprise appeared to be impeded by sexual primes. Sexual priming appeared to have little effect on the nonoffenders' recognition of fearful facial affect; however, for child molesters, sexual priming facilitated their recognition of fearful facial affect. These results were discussed in relation to current victim empathy theory and treatment implications of sexual offenders. The ability to accurately infer emotional states in others is central to the ability to develop and regulate interpersonal relationships. Research suggests that individuals who perpetrate sexual crimes against others have deficits in their capacity to experience empathy for their victims. In this study, a computer-based task was used to investigate the emotional recognition skills of child sexual abusers. The study consisted of two phases (prime and probe) and measured both response time and error rates to facial expressions. The priming phase consisted of the presentation of short phases via computer of either sexual or neutral content. The probe phase consisted of the presentation of adult facial expressions depicting either the emotion fear or surprise. Figure, note, and references