RESUMEN
Previous studies have reported numerous correlations between psychopathy and various personality traits, behavioural tendencies or clinical characteristics. The present study examined in greater depth the relationships between the components of psychopathy as measured by the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) and intelligence as well as impulsivity. A total of ninety male violent offenders were recruited from a prison and a forensic-psychiatric hospital in Germany. All of the subjects were assessed using the PCL-R, the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11), and a short version of the German Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WIP). As expected, a canonical correlation analysis showed a negative association between spatial intelligence and the Factor 2 subtotal on the PCL-R (reckless lifestyle/antisociality). In addition, our results agreed with the assumption of an association between impulsivity and the subtotal for PCL-R Factor 2. The positive relationship between verbal intelligence and the subtotal for Factor 1 of the PCL-R (insincere, manipulative conduct/affective deficits) vanished after controlling for educational level. The results indicate that there is a relationship between the spatial components of intelligence and the concept of psychopathy as described by Hare. This result supports the spatial impairment aetiological model of antisocial behaviour.
Asunto(s)
Criminales/psicología , Inteligencia , Violencia , Adulto , Anciano , Trastorno de Personalidad Antisocial , Lista de Verificación , Escolaridad , Alemania , Humanos , Conducta Impulsiva , Masculino , Persona de Mediana Edad , Psicopatología , Adulto JovenRESUMEN
Eighty years ago, preventive detention for dangerous offenders was implemented in the German Penal Code (Section 66). In 2011, about 500 individuals were incarcerated under a preventive detention order in Germany. Through semi-structured clinical interviews and/or collateral file review, the present investigators assessed the sociobiographic, criminological, and clinical characteristics of 58 men for whom preventive detention had been ordered in two German federal states. In addition, risk assessment instruments were administered. The majority of the inmates were sexual offenders. The main mental health problems were antisocial personality disorder (APD), substance abuse/disorder, and paraphilias. Most individuals had a history of poor socialization. Structured clinical judgment as well as actuarial risk assessment instruments identified all inmates as high-risk offenders. Future development of preventive detention in Germany must emphasize treatment interventions. Given the life histories and the mental health problems of the detainees assessed in the present study, the implementation of effective treatment will prove difficult.
Asunto(s)
Internamiento Obligatorio del Enfermo Mental/legislación & jurisprudencia , Criminales/psicología , Prisioneros/psicología , Delitos Sexuales/prevención & control , Trastorno de Personalidad Antisocial/psicología , Criminales/legislación & jurisprudencia , Conducta Peligrosa , Psiquiatría Forense , Alemania , Humanos , Masculino , Trastornos Parafílicos/psicología , Medición de Riesgo , Delitos Sexuales/legislación & jurisprudencia , Delitos Sexuales/psicología , Trastornos Relacionados con Sustancias/psicologíaRESUMEN
Studies on structural abnormalities in antisocial individuals have reported inconsistent results, possibly due to inhomogeneous samples, calling for an investigation of brain alterations in psychopathologically stratified subgroups. We explored structural differences between antisocial offenders with either borderline personality disorder (ASPD-BPD) or high psychopathic traits (ASPD-PP) and healthy controls (CON) using region-of-interest-based and voxel-based morphometry approaches. Besides common distinct clusters of reduced gray matter volumes within the frontal pole and occipital cortex, there was remarkably little overlap in the regional distribution of brain abnormalities in ASPD-BPD and ASPD-PP, when compared to CON. Specific alterations of ASPD-BPD were detected in orbitofrontal and ventromedial prefrontal cortex regions subserving emotion regulation and reactive aggression and the temporal pole, which is involved in the interpretation of other peoples' motives. Volumetric reductions in ASPD-PP were most significant in midline cortical areas involved in the processing of self-referential information and self-reflection (i.e., dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, posterior cingulate/precuneus) and recognizing emotions of others (postcentral gyrus) and could reflect neural correlates of the psychopathic core features of callousness and poor moral judgment. The findings of this first exploratory study therefore may reflect correlates of prominent psychopathological differences between the two criminal offender groups, which have to be replicated in larger samples.
Asunto(s)
Trastorno de Personalidad Antisocial/patología , Trastorno de Personalidad Limítrofe/patología , Encéfalo/patología , Adolescente , Adulto , Agresión/psicología , Trastorno de Personalidad Antisocial/psicología , Trastorno de Personalidad Limítrofe/psicología , Mapeo Encefálico , Criminales/psicología , Humanos , Procesamiento de Imagen Asistido por Computador , Imagen por Resonancia Magnética , Masculino , Persona de Mediana Edad , Tamaño de los Órganos , Violencia/psicologíaRESUMEN
Previous studies associated psychopathy in adults with deficits in empathy but these studies did not directly compare cognitive and emotional facets of empathy. The present study sought to establish whether psychopathy is associated with impairments in emotional empathy among adult offenders. Participants were 90 male offenders scoring low (n = 29), medium (n = 33) or high (n = 28) on the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) and n = 28 male noncriminal controls. Empathy functioning was assessed through self-report and computerized decision tasks, differentiating between perspective-taking (cognitive empathy) and compassion (emotional empathy). Against expectations, level of psychopathy among the offenders was not associated with either emotional or cognitive empathy. Offenders however had lower scores for both cognitive and emotional components of empathy functioning than controls. Both facets of empathy showed small but significant positive correlations with education level and social desirability. The methods employed to assess differences in empathy functioning may not be sensitive enough to assess differences in forensic samples.
Asunto(s)
Trastorno de Personalidad Antisocial/psicología , Criminales/psicología , Emociones , Empatía , Prisioneros/psicología , Adulto , Anciano , Trastorno de Personalidad Antisocial/diagnóstico , Humanos , Masculino , Persona de Mediana Edad , Autoinforme , Encuestas y Cuestionarios , Violencia/psicologíaRESUMEN
OBJECTIVE. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the influence of concurrently presented emotional stimuli on cognitive task processing in violent criminal offenders primarily characterized by affective instability. METHODS. Fifteen male criminal offenders with antisocial and borderline personality disorder (ASPD and BPD) and 17 healthy controls underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while performing a working memory task with low and high working memory load. In a second experimental run, to investigate the interaction of emotion and cognition, we presented emotionally neutral, low, or high salient social scenes in the background of the task. RESULTS. During the memory task without pictures, both groups did not differ in general task performance and neural representation of working memory processes. During the memory task with emotional background pictures, however, ASPD-BPD subjects compared to healthy controls showed delayed responses and enhanced activation of the left amygdala in the presence of emotionally high salient pictures independent of working memory load. CONCLUSIONS. These results illustrate an interaction of emotion and cognition in affective instable individuals with enhanced reactivity to emotionally salient stimuli which might be an important factor regarding the understanding of aggressive and violent behaviour in these individuals.
Asunto(s)
Trastorno de Personalidad Antisocial/psicología , Trastorno de Personalidad Limítrofe/psicología , Encéfalo/fisiopatología , Criminales/psicología , Emociones , Memoria a Corto Plazo , Adulto , Trastorno de Personalidad Antisocial/fisiopatología , Trastorno de Personalidad Limítrofe/fisiopatología , Mapeo Encefálico/métodos , Cognición , Humanos , Imagen por Resonancia Magnética/métodos , Masculino , Análisis y Desempeño de TareasRESUMEN
Recent approaches suggest that emotional reactivity can be used to differentiate between subgroups of individuals who are at risk for showing elevated levels of aggression and violence. In this study, we examined how emotion governs decision making within two subgroups of antisocial criminal offenders with either emotional hypo- or hyper-reactivity compared with healthy, noncriminal controls. Offenders were recruited from high-security forensic treatment facilities and penal institutions and underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging during a financial decision-making task. In this task, participants were required to choose between low-risk (bonds) and high-risk alternatives (stocks). Bonds were always the safe choice; stocks could win or lose, with a varying degree of uncertainty. We found that emotionally hypo-reactive offenders differed most from healthy controls by showing diminished neural activation in the rostral anterior cingulate cortex in response to uncertainty as well as decreased activity in the prefrontal cortex when trying to regulate their behavior accordingly (i.e., when consistently choosing "safe alternatives"). Hence, the data indicate that emotionally hypo-reactive offenders (with psychopathic traits) constitute a special subgroup within antisocial offenders characterized in particular by a limited capacity to emotionally represent uncertainty and to anticipate punishment.
Asunto(s)
Criminales/psicología , Emociones/fisiología , Asunción de Riesgos , Violencia/psicología , Adulto , Trastorno de Personalidad Antisocial/psicología , Toma de Decisiones , Manual Diagnóstico y Estadístico de los Trastornos Mentales , Humanos , Procesamiento de Imagen Asistido por Computador , Pruebas de Inteligencia , Imagen por Resonancia Magnética , Masculino , Motivación , Pruebas Neuropsicológicas , Oxígeno/sangre , Trastornos de la Personalidad/psicología , Corteza Prefrontal/fisiología , Tamaño de la Muestra , Incertidumbre , Adulto JovenRESUMEN
Offenders with antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) may be characterized by a lack in emotional functioning that manifests in irritability and a lack of remorse. The proposed link between ASPD and negative emotionality led to the question of emotional processing anomalies in ASPD. Furthermore, the effect of childhood maltreatment/abuse on emotional processing was tested in the present study. Violent and sexual offenders with ASPD (n=35), without ASPD (n=34), and healthy non-criminal controls (n=24) were compared in an Emotional Stroop Task (EST) using neutral, negative, and violence-related words. Secondary analyses focused on the effect of psychopathic traits and childhood maltreatment. Offenders with ASPD showed a stronger attentional bias to violence-related and negative words as compared to controls. Comparable results were obtained when grouping offenders to high, medium, and low psychopathic subgroups. Offenders with childhood maltreatment specifically showed stronger violence-related attentional bias than non-maltreated offenders. The data suggest that enhanced attention to violence-related stimuli in adult criminal offenders is associated with adverse developmental experiences and delinquency but to a lesser extent with antisocial or psychopathic traits.
Asunto(s)
Trastorno de Personalidad Antisocial/complicaciones , Trastorno de Personalidad Antisocial/psicología , Trastorno por Déficit de Atención con Hiperactividad/etiología , Sesgo , Criminales/psicología , Adulto , Anciano , Análisis de Varianza , Emociones/fisiología , Humanos , Masculino , Persona de Mediana Edad , Prisioneros/psicología , Tiempo de Reacción/fisiología , Adulto JovenRESUMEN
In Germany, preventive detention can be imposed if a repeat offender shows a proclivity to commit further significant criminal acts. The courts require expert opinion to provide information about personality traits relevant for this disposition. However, currently, consensus about this topic is lacking. On the basis of a standardized examination, the relevance of Hare's concept of "psychopathy" for expert opinion is discussed in the context of preventive detention.
Asunto(s)
Trastorno de Personalidad Antisocial/diagnóstico , Internamiento Obligatorio del Enfermo Mental/legislación & jurisprudencia , Criminales/psicología , Prisioneros/psicología , Adulto , Anciano , Trastorno de Personalidad Antisocial/psicología , Criminales/legislación & jurisprudencia , Testimonio de Experto , Psiquiatría Forense , Alemania , Humanos , Estilo de Vida , Masculino , Persona de Mediana Edad , Prisioneros/legislación & jurisprudencia , Encuestas y CuestionariosRESUMEN
In the last decade, preventive detention-especially that relating to sexual offenders- has gained relevance for the German legal system. However, data are lacking concerning the inmates and the modus operandi of the psychiatric experts. Court orders and psychiatric statements of 114 offenders with orders of preventive detention were examined, 57 of whom were incarcerated because of sexual offences. Sexual offenders mostly show antisocial personality traits or even disorders, with a history of poly-trophic delinquency. In only four cases, the diagnosis of a sexual disorder was given. The analysis showed a high rate of psychiatric expert testimonies' lacking basic information, with incomplete assessment of sexual history. None of the experts used standardized prognostic instruments, meaning that most of the risk factors included in the Sexual Violence Risk-20 and the Static-99 were not considered. Further work needs to be done to improve the quality of psychiatric statements concerning sexual offenders.
Asunto(s)
Prisioneros , Delitos Sexuales/legislación & jurisprudencia , Delitos Sexuales/prevención & control , Psiquiatría Forense , Alemania , Humanos , Medición de RiesgoRESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is characterized by an emotionally unstable and impulsive cognitive and behavioral style. Inhibitory dysfunction has been hypothesized as playing a crucial role in BPD psychopathology. This study aimed to systematically investigate differential inhibitory functions in patients with BPD as compared to healthy controls, and to investigate their expected impairment in the context of aversive emotions by comparing performances in neuropsychological tasks that present both neutral and emotional material. METHOD: Unmedicated female patients with BPD (n=28) were compared with age-matched healthy female controls (n=30) in the following tasks: the emotional Stroop test (inhibition of interference), directed forgetting (intentional, resource-dependent inhibition), and an emotional variant of the negative priming task (automatic, resource-independent inhibition). RESULTS: In comparison with the controls, the BPD patients showed reduced inhibition of negative material in the directed forgetting task and in the negative priming task. No effect was found in the emotional Stroop test. Significant correlations with current affect as well as trait anxiety and anger (but not impulsiveness) were found in the BPD group specifically for negative stimuli, while no such correlations were found in the control group. In addition to inhibitory deficiencies, BPD patients had difficulties remembering positive words in the directed forgetting task. CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggest that individuals with BPD have difficulties in actively suppressing irrelevant information when it is of an aversive nature. Inhibitory dysfunction appears to be closely related to state and trait variables of unstable affect, but not to self-reported impulsiveness.