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The United States Supreme Court in Jones vs. Mississippi (2021) reinforced the Miller decision to allow sentencing judges the discretion to determine whether individuals convicted of murder under age 18 warrant a life sentence. The Miller decision dictates individualized sentencing, citing psychosocial disadvantages, immaturity, potential evolving risk, and how these qualities differ for each defendant. Since the Miller decision, mental health professionals routinely submit forensic reports as part of prisoners’ petitions to courts for reconsideration of their life sentences, either at the request of defense attorneys or prosecutors. This tracks a well-established practice of pre-sentencing evaluations. The expressions of immaturity in crime are not; however, accounted for in the same way that expressions of major mental illness reference years of crime-specific research and diagnostic standardization. For this reason, forensic assessments in this emerging area remain unguided and vulnerable to bias. Here, we present a guide containing 38 questions in seven developmental domains for individualized assessment and 50 questions spanning five domains that relate to the details of the crime. Our qualitative guidelines for assessment of the relevant domains of criminal maturity and offender prognosis draw on the forensic psychiatry, forensic pathology, developmental psychopathology, and criminological literatures, our experiences in comparative research of murder, sex assault and other crimes, as well as decades of experience in forensic assessment. A complete assessment of the offender should include questions in the developmental, scholastic/vocational, social, interpersonal, traumas, antisocial history, and psychiatric/medical domains. We also present recommended questions for assessing the details of the crime to more fully and accurately inform the individualized sentencing requirement in Miller cases.

Dark Triad traits and self-control are considered viable causal precursors to antisocial and criminal outcomes in youth. The purpose of the present study is to concurrently compare how Dark Triad traits and self-control differ in terms of predicting self-reported juvenile delinquency, CD symptoms, proactive overt aggression, and crime seriousness. The sample consisted of 567 (M = 15.91 years, SD = 0.99 years, age range = 14–18 years) Southern European youth from Portugal. Structural-equation-modelling procedures revealed that the psychopathy factor of Dark Triad traits presented the strongest significant hypothetical causal associations with the antisocial/criminal outcomes, followed by self-control. Machiavellianism and narcissism presented the lowest causal associations. Our findings indicate that psychopathy, as operationalized in the Dark Triad, concurrently surpasses self-control and the remaining factors of the Dark Triad in terms of predicting antisocial/criminal outcomes in youth. This suggests that behavioral disinhibition, or a core incapacity to regulate one’s conduct, is central for understanding delinquency and externalizing psychopathology. Comparatively, the interpersonal component of dark personality features, such as Machiavellianism and narcissism, are secondary for understanding crime.

Correctional clients frequently have extensive trauma and abuse experiences and the adverse childhood experiences framework is increasingly influential in the criminological and forensic sciences. Unfortunately, most measurement involves binary measures that fail to capture the complexity of this abuse. Using a population of federal offenders who ever perpetrated a sexual offense, the current study introduced new measures of physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, and incest abuse that included ordinal-scale measures of the frequency, chronicity, and severity of these experiences. Descriptive, correlational, and ROC-AUC models indicated that the prevalence of adverse childhood experiences depends on its measurement with some clients experiencing frequent and severe abuse across years. Adverse childhood experiences significantly correlated with multiple measures of criminal onset and sexual offending and had excellent classification accuracy for behavioral disorders especially Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) and Conduct Disorder (CD). We encourage further measurement development of adverse childhood experiences so that the ecological validity of research is commensurate with the trauma experiences of offenders who commit sexual crimes.

Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD) is a severe personality disorder with robust associations with crime and violence, but its precise etiology is unknown. Drawing on near-population of federal correctional clients in the Midwestern United States, the current study examined antecedent background factors spanning adverse childhood experiences and childhood psychopathology. Greater adverse childhood experiences were associated with ASPD diagnosis with physical abuse showing associations with ASPD symptoms and sexual abuse with lifetime diagnosis for ASPD. Conduct Disorder was strongly linked to ASPD; however, Oppositional Defiant Disorder and ADHD had null associations. Given the role of environmental factors in the development of ASPD, greater criminological attention should be devoted to understanding how assorted forms of abuse and neglect coupled with childhood psychopathology contribute to ASPD especially given its linkages to severe criminal offending. Keywords: Antisocial personality disorder, adverse childhood experiences, psychopathology, offending, criminal career

Studies of homicide offenders that engage in repeat, non-serial homicide offending are scarce and most studies lack comprehensive criminal career data that include convictions for 1st degree murder. Drawing on archival data on 682 male convicted felons from the Florida Department of Corrections, the current study examined the prognostic association between prior 1st degree murder convictions and various specifications of subsequent homicide offending. Negative binomial and logistic regression models found that prior 1st degree murder convictions were significantly associated with current/instant homicide offending and multiple homicide offending despite controls for five forms of serious felony violence, age, and race. Suggestions for future research are proffered regarding the forensic and criminological value of 1st degree murder convictions. Keywords: Homicide, Murder, 1st degree murder, Forensic populations, Criminal career, Violence

Overlap between self-control and dark triad traits (i.e., psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and narcissism) is potentially problematic for efforts to distinguish dimensions associated with elevated risk for antisociality and crime. The aim of the present study is to examine the potential overlap between self-control and psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and narcissism, with a focus on the Brief Self-Control Scale (BSCS) and the Dirty Dozen Dark Triad scale (DD). The sample consisted of 567 youth (M = 15.91 years, SD = 0.99 years, age range = 14–18 years) from Portugal. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis results from the pooled set of items of the BSCS and the DD measures revealed that both are valid and reliable measures of their respective constructs. However, consistent with previous research, the narcissism facet of the DD emerged as an independent factor. Our findings suggest that if such an eventual overlap is detected, it would be a question of problematic measures, not constructs.

Lynam's fledgling psychopathy hypothesis advanced that youth who manifest Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), Conduct Disorder (CD), and ADHD display many behaviors that are consistent with psychopathy seen among adults, but research support for it is equivocal. We know littleabout the developmental course of fledgling psychopathy into adulthood and even less is known about its comorbidity at midlife. Drawing on data from a near population of federal correctional clients in the Midwestern United States, the current study employed a retrospective design to compare those who had lifetime diagnoses for ODD, CD, and ADHD to other correctional clients. Fledgling psychopathy was significantly correlated with multiple substance use disorders, forensic features indicative of a criminal lifestyle (e.g., gang activity, gunshot and stab wounds), and diverse forms of mental illness and personality disorders. Fledgling psychopaths had significantly earlier starting, extensive, and more violent criminal careers than other clients, and fledgling psychopathy was associated more career arrest charges and with 544% increased odds of being in the 90th percentile for career arrest charges. These findings are consistent with fledgling psychopathy and its traversing association with coextensive psychopathology and behavioral impairment at midlife.

Objective. Group fighting is portrayed as a piece of Americana among delinquent youth, but the behavior produces significant multifaceted negative consequences. The current study examines the heterogeneity and correlates of group fighting using national-level data. Method. Employing data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health between 2002 and 2013 (n = 216,852), we examine links between group fighting and temperamental, parental, and academic factors as well as other externalizing behaviors (i.e., violence, crime, substance use). Results. The prevalence of group fighting in the United States is 14.8% with 11.33% reporting 1–2 group fights and 3.46% reporting 3+ group fights. A clear severity gradient in school functioning and academic performance, sensation seeking, parental disengagement, violence and delinquency, and substance use disorders is seen in the normative, episodic, and repeat offender groups. Conclusions. Youths who participate in 3+ group fights display the exceptionality and severity of other serious/chronic/habitual antisocial youth which suggests that group fighting should be considered a significant indicator of developing criminality.

The question of whether MDMA use is associated with increased crime and violence has not been adequately explored especially in nationally representative samples. This study used data from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC) to assess the association between MDMA use and violent and non-violent antisocial behavior while controlling for sociodemographic variables, lifetime psychiatric, alcohol and drug use disorders, and family history of antisocial behavior. MDMA users, both male and female, were involved in a number of crimes in acts of violence including drunk driving, shoplifting, theft, intimate partner violence, and fighting. Notably, female MDMA users were more antisocial than male non-MDMA users. Although adjusting the results for numerous confounds attenuated the relationships, MDMA users were still at significantly greater odds of engaging in violent and nonviolent crime than non-MDMA users. Although MDMA has been considered a facilitator of empathy and closeness, the current study suggests a dark side as MDMA is associated with a broad array of crimes and transgressions. Additional tests of the MDMA-crime link are needed to properly inform policy.

The current article is a targeted review of two biosocial constructs, neuropsychological deficits relating to self-control and temperament, which as demonstrated by prior researchers are importantly related to antisocial behavior, importantly related to other constructs that influence antisocial behavior, such as aggression, and importantly related to prevention efforts. We explicate what is known about neuropsychological deficits relating to self-control and temperament specifically vis-à-vis prevention and early intervention programs that seek to preclude the development of costly antisocial careers.