Today the concept of empathy is widely used where people are considered to have different definitions of the concept. Civilian investigators, police officers and criminologists come, in their professional role, in contact with people who are suspected of crime. This makes it of critical importance to investigate whether these occupational groups find it difficult to assess if a person have empathic ability.
The purpose of the study was to investigate what characterizes empathy for people and what characterizes empathy in situations where a good or bad deed is done to another person.
The study was carried out based upon a qualitative research approach, with a thematic analysis, and consisted of 52 participants in respective groups of civil crime investigators, police officers, and criminology students.
The results show that the concept of empathy had a similar meaning for all participants involved. They described it as being able to relate to other people's lifeworld, lived experiences and feelings. However, it can be defined differently based on other people's life experiences. Most people considered it difficult to judge whether a person has empathy since it is difficult to know what someone else is thinking and feeling.
Furthermore, psychological violence was described as harming someone through lies, deceit and insults, while physical violence meant harming another person physically. Both mental and physical violence, according to the participants, could be seen to be a defense mechanism to protect themselves from being mentally or physically harmed. Furthermore, the participants considered that empathy included such things as helping someone in need, being humane when necessary. This makes the study fall in line with previous research on the concept of empathy.