Search

Research generally supports the notion that primary and secondary psychopathy variants are relatively distinct, with primary psychopathy reflecting a congenital affective deficit, and secondary psy...

Violent video game playing is a consistent risk factor for aggression, but research on its psychopathology and trait underpinnings are primarily based on community or university student samples, thus the ecological validity to adjudicated and juvenile justice system-involved youth lacks clarity. This is an important void in the literature because relative to youth in the general population, adjudicated and detained youth evince greater psychopathology, more severe delinquency and violence histories, and clinical psychopathic features. Negative binomial regression models using data from 252 youth in residential placements found that several psychopathic features are significantly associated with violent video gaming. The role of psychopathy operated differently across gender and arrest chronicity, and across models remorselessness emerged as an important correlate. Given the desensitization that can occur with violent video game play, it is of particular concern among delinquent youth with psychopathic personality features.

Psychopathy and trauma exposure are robustly associated with youth conduct problems, but the interrelation of these constructs is unclear. The objective of the present study is to examine psychopathy mediation effects related to trauma events and trauma reactions and juvenile delinquency, conduct disorder, crime seriousness, and proactive overt aggression outcomes. The sample consisted of N =388 ( M = 16.01 years, SD = 1.03 years, age range = 13–18 years) male youths from Portugal. Path analysis procedures revealed that psychopathy partially mediates the relation between trauma events and the juvenile delinquency, conduct disorder, crime seriousness outcomes, and fully mediates the relation between trauma events and the proactive overt aggression outcome. Trauma reactions have no direct significant effect on psychopathy, and psychopathy does not mediate the relation between trauma reactions and the examined outcomes. Research on trauma and adverse childhood experiences should encompass both events and reactions to those events as they have differential associations with psychopathy and externalizing outcomes. Trauma-informed service, supervision, and treatment is essential for understanding antisocial development and psychological maladjustment among youth.

Self-control and psychopathy are general theories of antisociality that have considerable empirical support, are conceptually similar, and have occasionally been studied together. A recent head-to-head test of the theories and found that self-control generally outperformed psychopathy among assorted criminal outcomes among institutionalized delinquents. Using data from university students (N = 1611) and different measures of self-control (Grasmick et al. scale) and psychopathy (Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale), the current study revisited this work and found that self-control had robust associations with sexual aggression, general aggression, and substance abuse problems, and extreme scores on these outcomes variables. However, the effects of self-control were negated once psychopathy was specified, suggesting that psychopathy is more important for understanding assorted forms of deviance than self-control in the undergraduate population. Given the empirical heft of both theories, we encourage further study to determine which has greater predictive validity for understanding various forms of crime among different populations spanning student, community, forensic, and correctional samples. We also encourage the specification of both self-control and psychopathy as standard control variables.

The triarchic model of psychopathy is one of the most influential models of psychopathy developed in recent years. The current aim is to investigate the utility of a self-report measure of the triarchic model of psychopathy in predicting criminal recidivism among a sample of incarcerated juvenile offenders. Male youth participants (N=228, M=16.38 years, SD=1.26 years) from the Detention Centers managed nation-wide by the Ministry of Justice of Portugal were followed during a two-year period and categorized as recidivists or non-recidivists. The Area Under the Curve (AUC) results showed that only the Disinhibition dimension of the triarchic model of psychopathy was able to significantly predict general recidivism. The binary logistic regression models controlling for relevant variables (e.g. age of first detention, past frequency of crimes, conduct disorder symptoms) found that the boldness, meanness, and disinhibition dimensions failed to predict general or violent recidivism. The overall findings suggest that the triarchic model of psychopathy demonstrates limited utility in terms of predicting recidivism among juvenile offenders., This work was partially supported by Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology [grant number UID/PSI/01662/2019

Current scholarship on gang involvement and behavior has focused on several individual and environmental factors believed to drive the use of violence, yet limited research has explored the potentially confounding role of behavioral disorders. Using a sample of youth who completed a long-term residential placement within the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice (FDJJ), this study extends the recent findings of DeLisi et al. to determine whether the presence of a conduct disorder or other behavioral disorder renders the effect of gang involvement on recidivism spurious. Using a series of logistic regression models, behavioral disorders were associated with rearrest, but for males only. Furthermore, behavioral disorders did not render the effect of gang membership on rearrest or readjudication spurious, as the main effect of gang involvement held across all models estimated. Gang-involved adjudicated youth present with myriad mental health, temperamental, and individual risk factors.

A long tradition of theoretical and empirical work has described different variants (or subtypes) of psychopathy, in an attempt to delineate similarities and differences among constellations of psychopathic traits. Research in this area has the potential to increase our understanding of the etiology of different psychopathy variants, their associated risk, and protective factors, as well as to inform the development of tailored interventions. Drawing on data from a large, representative sample of referred boys incarcerated in the United States (N = 629; Mage = 15.49 years, SD = 1.23), the current study adopted a person-centered approach to identify variants of incarcerated youth based on scores on the 8 Psychopathic Personality Inventory-Short Form (PPI-SF) subscales. Latent profile analysis results identified 5 variants of youth: a high-psychopathy variant, a variant with moderate psychopathy scores, and 3 variants with distinct elevations on some PPI-SF subscales. Over one third of the participants had substantially high levels of psychopathic traits, and high levels of psychopathy were associated with a severe history of delinquency. Latent profile analysis findings also supported traditional and contemporary perspectives on psychopathy variants according to which different constellations of psychopathic traits are associated with different degrees of delinquent behavior, internalizing symptoms, substance use, and victimization. Finally, it appears that, individually, none of the trait domains assessed by the PPI-SF can explain differences across variants, and that it is the co-occurrence of all of the features that characterizes the most severe form of psychopathy. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

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.

Homicide is the most serious and costly criminal offense and better forensic and criminological understanding of homicidal ideation as a potential psychobehavioral precursor to homicidal conduct is critical. Using data from the 2016 Nationwide Emergency Department Sample (NEDS) from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) distributed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), we found 64,910 cases of homicidal ideation among a sample of 25.6 + million-a prevalence of 0.25%. Numerous conditions conferred increased substantially the likelihood of homicidal ideation including antisocial personality disorder (2406%), schizoaffective disorder (1821%), borderline personality disorder (1557%), paranoid personality disorder (1,504%), schizophrenia (1,143%), obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (921%), brief psychotic disorder (771%), unspecified psychosis (737%), avoidant personality disorder (596%), and schizoid personality disorder (571%), delusional disorder (546%), and other psychotic disorder (504%). Homicidal ideation is comorbid with serious psychiatric and behavioral problems and has important implications for offender typologies and homicidality.

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

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a significant public health issue associated with increased medical comorbidity and economic burden. The majority of studies of TBI among clinical populations are geographically limited and rely on small samples. As such, the current study seeks to examine the prevalence and psychosocial correlates of TBI in a nationally representative emergency department (ED) sample. Using the 2016 Nationwide Emergency Department Sample, logistic regression was employed to examine the relationship between TBI history, sociodemographic factors and mental health disorders. An estimated 179,986 adults age 18 and older were admitted to United States EDs in 2016 with a personal history of TBI. The majority of patients were male (69.71%), ages 50 years or older (50.92%) with Medicare (44.30%) or Medicaid (28.65%) insurance. Diagnoses of posttraumatic stress disorder (AOR = 3.99), affective disorders (AOR = 2.97), anxiety disorders (AOR = 1.68), personality and behavior disorders (AOR = 2.77), and schizophrenia (AOR = 2.80) were significantly associated with history of TBI. These results provide insight into the developmental pathogenesis of TBI and its comorbid psychiatric consequences.

Popular in the field of developmental psychopathology, multifinality means that an initial condition or status can manifest in diverse outcomes across life. Using a near population of federal correctional clients selected from the Midwestern United States, the current study examined the association of chronic delinquent offender status on assorted life outcomes at midlife (average age of offenders was nearly 44 years). Although just 16% of the current offenders were formerly chronic delinquents, they accounted for 13.9% of current employment, 54.6% of antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) cases, 54% of those at the 90th percentile for arrest charges, 45.8% of those at the 90th percentile for assaultive arrest charges, 53% of gang activity, 43.8% of lifetime traumatic brain injury, and 22.9% of lifetime mental illness. Logistic regression models indicated that former chronic delinquency was associated with 41% reduced odds of employment, 897% increased odds of ASPD, 81% increased odds of 90th percentile offending, 82% increased odds of 90th percentile assaultive offending, 144% increased odds of gang activity, 115% increased odds of traumatic brain injury, and 141% increased odds of lifetime mental illness. Former chronic delinquency has more consistent predictive validity among males than females and among Whites than African Americans. Multifinality is a useful concept to understand the developmental course of chronic delinquency and assess noncriminal yet nevertheless socially and societally burdensome outcomes.

A growing body of research has demonstrated the deleterious effects of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). Less understood is the role of ACEs in gang involvement among juvenile offenders. The current longitudinal study employs a sample of 104,267 juvenile offenders (mean age of 16, 76% male, 46% Black non-Hispanic, 15.7% Hispanic) to examine the effect of ACE exposure on two different measures of gang involvement by age 18. We use structural equation modeling to test whether higher ACE exposure at Time 1 predicts gang involvement and whether current substance use and/or difficult temperament mediates the ACE-gang involvement relationship. Results indicate ACE exposure at Time 1 predicts gang involvement by age 18, but that much of the effect of ACEs on later gang involvement can be explained by their impact on current substance abuse and difficult temperament. Implications for juvenile justice systems are discussed.

The development and validation of empirically sound measures that operationalize the Triarchic model of psychopathy among youth is currently in the nascent stage. The present study aimed to examine...

Prison violence is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon. While a great deal of research has been conducted in male samples, very few studies are dedicated to understanding violence committed by female offenders. Two constructs that have emerged as important predictors of violence are psychopathy and impulsivity. These constructs may be an important line of inquiry due to the close association between psychopathy, impulsivity, and violence. In a sample of 166 female offenders, we used the 3-facet model of psychopathy and 3-factor model of trait impulsivity with the goal to statistically explain two types of prison violence: official reports of violent misconducts over a 12-month period, and self-report of deliberately instigating a violent altercation. We conducted three separate regression models to test the independent contribution of psychopathy and impulsivity, as well as accounting for the overlap between psychopathy and impulsivity. When impulsivity and psychopathy were not competing within the same model, affective and behavioral psychopathic traits, and nonplanning impulsiveness predicted violent misconducts. However, when accounting for impulsivity and psychopathy within the same model, only affective psychopathic traits remained significant. When predicting if an offender deliberately started a violent altercation, separate statistical models showed affective and interpersonal psychopathic traits, and nonplanning impulsiveness were significant. When competing for variance within the same statistical model, only affective and interpersonal psychopathic traits remained as significant predictors. This suggests an overlap between psychopathic traits and nonplanning impulsivity when understanding violent misconducts in female offenders, while affective psychopathic explains female prison violence, regardless of impulsivity.

Researchers have found that legal cynicism is a significant predictor of crime. Although legal cynicism developed as a form of anomie, it is also plausible that legal cynicism is itself a deviant rationalization to justify one's criminal behavior. As such, legal cynicism might be a derivative manifestation of other individual-level constructs that bear on criminal propensity. We test this possibility by controlling for temperament traits related to antisocial behavior and psychopathic personality features in a sample of residentially incarcerated youth (N = 253). Results from negative binomial models revealed that legal cynicism was significantly associated with self-reported delinquency (including violence), but not total arrests. The significant associations with general delinquency and violence held even when controlling for sociodemographic characteristics. However, the associations were rendered either non-significant or greatly attenuated when we included temperament and psychopathy measures in the models. Overall, findings are convergent with the notion that legal cynicism is a consequence or product of antisocial traits and criminal propensity.

An individual’s capacity for self-control is an important factor when considering the link between aggression and delinquency outcomes. The aim of the present study is to examine the possible role of self-control as a moderator of the aggression-antisociality/delinquency link among a sample of 567 youth (M = 15.91 years, SD = .99 years, age range = 14–18 years) from Portugal. Results indicated that self-control significantly moderates four different forms and functions of aggression – proactive overt, proactive relational, reactive overt, and reactive relational – in models simultaneously predicting delinquency and conduct disorder outcomes. We encourage multifaceted study of aggression as inherent in the Peer Conflict Scale-20 to articulate the ways that various forms of aggression unfold into clinical conduct problems. Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia - FCT info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

The aim of the present study is to examine the possible role of psychopathic traits as a moderator of the aggression-antisociality/delinquency link. Our sample was composed of 567 youth (M = 15.91 years, SD = 0.99 years, age range = 14-18 years) from Portugal. Results indicated that psychopathic features significantly moderate four different forms and functions of aggression - proactive overt, proactive relational, reactive overt, and reactive relational - when predicting delinquency. However, psychopathic traits only significantly moderate proactive relational aggression when predicting Conduct Disorder. Psychopathic traits and aggression constitute an antisocial alchemy for antisocial behavior but more research is needed about moderation effects therein particularly among clinical and justice system involved samples of youth to inform behavioral interventions. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

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. Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia - FCT info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Self-control refers to the ability to override impulses and behave in accordance with societal norms. Deficits in self-control are strongly associated with conduct problems, externalizing disorders, crime, and violence. The main aim of the present study is to investigate possible moderation and mediation effects related to self-control. A school sample of male ( n = 257, M = 15.97 years, SD = .98 years) and female ( n = 213, M = 15.79 years, SD = 1.03 years) youth from Portugal agreed to participate. Moderation analysis revealed that sex moderates the relationship between self-control and aggression, conduct disorder symptoms, and self-reported delinquency. Mediation analysis revealed that self-control mediates the relations between both triarchic psychopathic traits and dark triad traits, and the self-reported juvenile delinquency outcome. The findings suggest that self-control exerts significant effects on the criminal/antisocial-related variables examined among Portuguese youth.

Since Anderson&rsquo, s now classic, Code of the Street: Decency, Violence, and the Moral Life of the Inner City, an increasing number of researchers have found a significant association between the code of the street and antisocial behavior. Less researched, however, is the relationship between the code of the street and cognate psychological factors. Building on the hypothesis that the code of the street is simply a reflection of elements of the population who exhibit antisocial traits, our aim in this study is to empirically test whether the observed association between the code of the street and antisocial behavior can withstand psychological confounds among a sample of institutionalized juvenile delinquents. Negative binomial regression models show that the code of the street remained a significant predictor of antisocial behavior despite the specification of psychopathy and temperamental traits and other controls. Moreover, as theorized, differential effects were found for African American delinquents compared to non-African American delinquents. We discuss theoretical and practical implications.

Suicide is the leading cause of death for incarcerated youth, and up to half of all juveniles in confinement experience suicidal ideation in addition to other psychopathology, including psychopathic personality features. Unfortunately, limited research has investigated the psychopathy–suicidality link among juvenile delinquents and using newer psychopathy measures. Based upon a statewide population of incarcerated juvenile offenders, we found that psychopathy was a significant risk factor for suicidal ideation and lifetime suicide attempts, but the latter relationship was attenuated by lifetime depression diagnosis. In addition, certain affective psychopathic features such as Stress Immunity conferred protection against suicidality, whereas behavioral and lifestyle components including Carefree Nonplanfulness, Blame Externalization, and Rebellious Nonconformity were positively linked to suicidal thoughts among the youth offenders. As these risk factors are routinely screened for in juvenile justice settings, this study’s findings have considerable implications to applied practice and prevention among juvenile justice involved youth.

PurposeHomicide is the most severe form of crime and one that imposes the greatest societal costs. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the homicide circumplex, a set of traits, behaviors, psychological and psychiatric features that are associated with greater homicidal ideation, homicidal social cognitive biases, homicide offending and victimization, and psychopathology that is facilitative of homicide.Design/methodology/approachUsing the data from a near population of federal supervised release offenders from the Midwestern USA, ANOVA, multinomial logistic, Poisson and negative binomial regression models were developed.FindingsGreater homicidal ideation is associated with homicide offending, attempted homicide offending and attempted homicide victimization and predicted by gang activity, alias usage, antisocial personality disorder and intermittent explosive disorder. These behavioral disorders, more extensive criminal careers, African American status and gang activity also exhibited significant associations with dimensions of the homicide circumplex.Originality/valueDeveloping behavioral profiles of offenders that exhibit homicidal ideation and behaviors are critical for identifying clients at greatest risk for lethal violence. The homicide circumplex is an innovation toward the goal that requires additional empirical validation.

Background Race differences in crime and violence are dramatic in the United States but criminology has avoided offering explanations due mostly to political correctness. Method The current study draws on research on personality, race differences in personality, race and self-control, and race and psychopathy to examine whether personality is potentially useful for articulating race differences in offending. Results Findings on race differences in personality, self-control, and psychopathy are mixed and effect sizes among significant findings are small. Relying on the street code, one of the few theories that explicitly attempts to explain criminal violence perpetrated by African Americans, it is hypothesized that personality pathology potentially drives the violent adaptations that are attributed to the code. Conclusion The race-crime-personality linkages are equivocal at best and more research is needed to gauge the utility of personality as a basis for understanding race differences in crime and violence, particularly homicide.

Household drug abuse is one of the seminal forms of adverse childhood experiences, but it does not fully capture the severity of parents that actively provide or even administer drugs to their children. Drawing on a near population of federal supervised release offenders, the current study examined this “new” adverse childhood experience and its association with antisociality. Multiple analytical techniques (e.g., correlation, binary and multinomial logistic regression, and negative binomial regression) indicated that parent exposure to drugs was significantly associated with current drug status while on supervision, three forms of drug offending, and Cannabis, Cocaine, Methamphetamine, Opiate, and Alcohol Dependence even while controlling for age of arrest onset, sex, race, and current age. We concur with other scholars that more conceptualization and measurement-refinement of adverse childhood experiences is needed to fully understand how early-life trauma shapes the contours of the criminal career.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is associated with violent behavior. A possible key mechanism to explain the relationship between TBI and violence is DeLisi and Vaughn’s temperament-based theory of an...

Antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) requires a childhood diagnosis of conduct disorder (CD); however, some adult offenders are nevertheless diagnosed with ASPD without antecedent CD. The current study used a population of federal correctional clients to examine psychiatric and paraphilic conditions that potentially differentiate these offenders. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) was associated with a 120% increased likelihood of ASPD with prior CD, but a 75% reduced likelihood of ASPD without CD. Bipolar I disorder was associated with a 328% increased likelihood, frotteurism conferred a 311% increased likelihood, and sexual sadism conferred a 1,033% increased likelihood of ASPD without CD. The findings provide specificity to the heterogeneous ASPD population and help to clarify its equifinality. Implications for correctional practice are that prior psychiatric diagnoses and paraphilic disorders can help to understand the development of serious criminal behavior occurring among adult offenders even if they lacked CD.

Despite growing interest in psychopathic personality features in juvenile offenders, few studies have examined the relationship between childhood trauma and psychopathy. The present study utilized two datasets: 253 adolescents in a residential facility for juvenile offenders in Pennsylvania and 723 institutionalized delinquents in Missouri. Zero-order correlations and linear regression techniques were employed for boys and girls to examine the relationships between trauma, assessed using the Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument Version 2 (MAYSI-2) Traumatic Experiences Scale and the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), and psychopathy as measured by the Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory (YPI) and the Psychopathic Personality Inventory–Short Form (PPI-SF). Results indicate that psychopathy is significantly correlated with childhood trauma. For the Missouri data, trauma significantly predicted psychopathy scores for both boys and girls. These results suggest that nuanced understanding of traumatic history of these adolescents may not only be a pathway to psychopathy but also a critical part of their overall assessment and treatment plan.

Recent interest among criminologists on the construct of temperament has been fueled by DeLisi and Vaughn's (2014) temperament-based theory of antisocial behavior. Their theory suggests that core self-regulation capacity and negative emotionality are the most salient temperament features for understanding the emergence and maintenance of antisocial and violent behavior, even among offending populations. The present study tests the relative effects of these temperamental features along with psychopathic traits and trauma in their association with violent and non-violent delinquency in a sample of 252 juvenile offenders. Results from a series of negative binomial regression models indicate that temperament was uniformly more strongly associated with violent and non-violent delinquency than psychopathic traits and childhood traumatic events. Exploratory classification models suggested that temperament and psychopathy possessed similar predictive capacity, but neither surpassed prior history of violence and delinquency as a predictor of future offending. Overall, findings are supportive of DeLisi and Vaughn's temperament-based theory and suggest temperament as conceptualized and measured in the present study may play an important role as a risk factor for violent and non-violent delinquency.

Purpose That psychopathy imposes substantial societal costs and economic burden is axiomatic, but monetization studies have overlooked cost estimates of the disorder. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on a near census of institutionalized delinquents from Missouri, the current study devised new crime cost measures for self-reported offending. Findings Youth imposed $30 million in total costs annually in large part due to extensive involvement in robbery, theft, and assault. The most criminally active youth imposed costs in excess of $700 million. Psychopathy features were differentially correlated with crime costs. APSD-SR callous-unemotional traits, mPPI-SF Blame Externalization, mPPI-SF Machiavellian Egocentricity, and mPPI-SF Social Potency were significantly associated with between four and five crime costs. Psychopathic traits associated with ruthless self-interest, callousness, and expectations to control and dominate others manifest in diverse ways including serious violence and repeated property crime. Other features such as mPPI-SF Impulsive Nonconformity, mPPI-SF Stress Immunity, mPPI-SF Coldheartedness, mPPI-SF Carefree Nonplanfulness, mPPI-SF Fearlessness, APSD-SR Impulsivity, and APSD-SR Narcissism had limited associations with crime costs. Originality/value To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first monetization study to quantify the effects of assorted psychopathy features on crime costs.

Extreme criminal careers illustrate the effects of multiple forms of psychopathology especially the confluence of psychopathy, multiple externalizing behaviors, and homicidality. Here, we present a forensic case report of Mr. Z, an offender whose antisocial conduct and criminal justice system involvement spans the late 1940s to the present, whose criminal career dovetails with significant events in correctional history in the United States in the middle to late 20th century, and who was a multiple homicide offender while incarcerated in both state and federal prisons. The case report method provides rich qualitative data to supplement quantitative findings on psychopathy, career criminals, the severe 5%, and life-course-persistent offender prototypes. Given the extraordinary behaviors and psychopathology of the most severe offenders, forensic case reports are useful to refine criminological theory and research, and inform correctional practice.

Intermittent Explosive Disorder (IED) is a relatively rare psychiatric condition characterized by aggression, explosive outbursts towards people and property, and very poorly regulated emotional an...

The current study examines the prevalence and correlates of serious, violent, and chronic offending among female juveniles admitted to juvenile justice residential programs in the state of Florida. Results are based on 3008 female youth who completed juvenile justice residential commitment programs from July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2014. Prevalence and correlates of serious, violent, and chronic offending among female youth were examined using logistic regression. Correlates include criminal history, individual, and mental health risk factors as well as temperament constructs. This sample of deep-end female offenders evidenced a serious, violent, and chronic prevalence rate of 27%. Female youth who offended earlier in life, those who were gang-involved, had a history of child welfare involvement, and had conduct disorder or temperament problems are more likely to evidence serious, violent, and chronic offending patterns. Serious, violent, and chronic female offenders represent a unique subset of juvenile offenders, presenting with myriad of mental health, temperamental, and individual risk factors. Large studies, such as the current examination, are needed to adequately understand the risks and correlates of serious, violent, and chronic offending among female delinquent youth.

Purpose Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are a broad conceptual framework in the social sciences that have only recently been studied within criminology. The purpose of this paper is to utilize this framework by applying it to one of the most potentially dangerous forensic populations. Design/methodology/approach Archival data from 225 federal sex offenders was used to perform descriptive, correlational, and negative binomial regression models. Findings There was substantial evidence of ACEs including father abandonment/neglect (36 percent), physical abuse (nearly 28 percent), verbal/emotional abuse (more than 24 percent), and sexual abuse (approximately 27 percent). The mean age of sexual victimization was 7.6 years with the youngest age of victimization occurring at the age of 3. Offenders averaged nearly five paraphilias, the most common were pedophilia (57 percent), pornography addiction (43 percent), paraphilia not otherwise specified (35 percent), exhibitionism (26 percent), and voyeurism (21 percent). The offenders averaged 4.7 paraphilias and the range was substantial (0 to 19). Negative binomial regression models indicated that sexual sadism was positively and pornography addiction was negatively associated with serious criminal violence. Offenders with early age of arrest onset and more total arrest charges were more likely to perpetrate kidnaping, rape, and murder. Originality/value ACEs are common in the life history of federal sex offenders, but have differential associations with the most serious forms of crime.

Although psychopathy construct (SRP-SF) was assessed among various samples, prior research did not investigate whether the model proposed by Hare and colleagues can be used to capture psychopathy scores derived from forensic and non-forensic populations. The main objective of the current study was to test dimensionality, construct validity, and factorial invariance of the SRP-SF within prison (N = 730) and student (N = 2,506) samples. Our results indicate that the SRP-SF measure cannot be used in the same way within forensic and non-forensic samples, which may be due to the inclusion of criminal/antisocial traits as an integral part of psychopathy.

Self-control and psychopathy are prominent general theories of antisociality that, although present a very similar type of individual, have not often been studied in tandem, and few studies have conducted a head-to-head test of their association with serious delinquency and youth violence. Using a near census of institutionalized delinquents from Missouri, the current study found that both low self-control and psychopathy were significantly associated with various forms of delinquency and severe/chronic delinquency as measured by 90th percentile on the distribution. However, low self-control was associated with more forms of delinquency, and victimization and youth with the lowest levels of self-control were at greatest risk for pathological delinquency relative to those with the most psychopathic personality. Both self-control and psychopathy are essential for understanding the most severe variants of delinquency, and more head-to-head tests are encouraged to assess the strength of criminological theories.

Objective To assess the prevalence and behavioral, sociodemographic, and psychiatric/psychological correlates of homicidal ideation among a sample of children and adolescents. Study design We employed descriptive and multivariate logit models of homicidal ideation using data from the 2012-2016 Nationwide Emergency Department Sample from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project. This study was conducted with data from emergency departments in the US, and we used a sample of (N = 17 041 346) children and adolescents between the ages of 5 and 17 years. Results Pediatric homicidal ideation is rare with a prevalence estimate of 0.09%; however, its prevalence increases substantially from age 5 years to age 15 years when it peaks, and then declines through the end of adolescence. Conduct disorders conferred 1483% increased odds, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder conferred 616% increased odds, and other behavioral and emotional disorders increased a 2-fold to nearly 4-fold increased liability for homicidal ideation net the effects of sex, age, urban residence, insurance status, and zip code median household income. Conclusion In the wake of homicide tragedies, it is often the case that numerous behavioral and clinical red flags were present in the developmental history of the perpetrator, but these were overlooked. Identifying children and adolescents who present with homicidal ideation is a crucial pediatric and public health matter that can inform prevention and behavioral interventions that forestall lethal violence.

Childhood abuse is associated with increased psychopathic features among girls, but most prior research is based on data from correctional samples of female delinquents and less is known about how specific forms of childhood abuse affect specific features of psychopathy. Using a school-based community sample of 696 girls aged 9–17 years from Barbados and Grenada, the current study examined latent profiles of psychopathic personality traits and their associations with physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. Latent profile analysis (LPA) revealed four distinct psychopathy groups among girls, including a ‘low psychopathy’ group (41.9% of girls), ‘high psychopathy’ group (4.8%), ‘high interpersonal manipulation and egocentricity’ group (37.4%), and a ‘moderate psychopathy’ group (16%). There was considerable evidence of physical abuse, emotional abuse, and sexual abuse among participants. Sexual abuse was associated with a 116% increased likelihood of membership in the high psychopathy group and a 57% increased likelihood of membership in the high interpersonal manipulation and egocentricity group. These results indicate that sexual abuse is a powerful distal factor in the development of psychopathic personality functioning, especially more severe variants.

Trauma exposure and low self-control are robustly associated with youth antisocial/criminal problems, but the interrelation of these constructs is unclear when taking into account both traumatic events and reactions. The objective of the present study is to examine self-control mediation effects related to trauma and juvenile delinquency, conduct disorder, crime seriousness, and aggression outcomes. The sample consisted of N = 388 male youth from Portugal (age, M = 16.01 years, SD = 1.03, age range = 13–18 years). Path analysis procedures revealed that self-control partially mediates the relation between trauma events and the examined outcomes and fully mediates the relation between trauma reactions and the examined outcomes. Research on youth trauma should examine both trauma events and trauma reactions because they have differential effects on low self-control and antisocial/criminal outcomes., This study was partially conducted at the Psychology Research Centre (PSI/01662) of the University of Minho. The first author was partially funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology and the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education (UID/PSI/01662/2019).

Burglary is serious property crime with a relatively high incidence and has been shown to be variously associated with other forms of criminal behavior. Unfortunately, an epidemiological understanding of burglary and its correlates is largely missing from the literature. Using public-use data collected between 2002 and 2013 as part of the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), the current study compared those who self-reported burglary arrest in the prior 12 months with and without criminal history. The unadjusted prevalence estimates of self-reported burglary arrest were statistically different for those with a prior arrest history (4.7%) compared with those without an arrest history (0.02%) which is a 235-fold difference. Those with an arrest history were more likely to report lower educational attainment, to have lower income, to have moved more than 3 times in the past 5 years, and to use alcohol, tobacco, illicit drugs, and engage in binge drinking. Moreover, those with prior arrest histories were younger and more likely to be male. There is considerable heterogeneity among burglars with criminal history indicating substantially greater behavioral risk.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to create and validate a brief self-report scale of psychopathic personality traits for research purposes which would grasp the essence of a psychopathic personality, regardless of respondents’ age, gender, cultural background, and criminal history.\ud \ud Methods: The Psychopathic Personality Traits Scale (PPTS), The Measure of Criminal Social Identity, Self-Esteem Measure for Criminals, The Child Sexual Abuse Myth Scale, Attitudes Towards Male Sexual Dating Violence, and Lie Scale were administered to 1,794 prisoners systematically sampled from 10 maximum- and medium-security prisons. Dimensionality and construct validity of the PPTS was investigated using traditional CFA techniques, along with confirmatory bifactor analysis and multitrait-multimethod modelling (MTMM). Seven alternative models of the PPTS were specified and tested using Mplus with WLSMV estimation.\ud \ud Results: MTMM model of PPTS offered the best representation of the data. The results suggest that the PPTS consists of four subscales (affective responsiveness, cognitive responsiveness, interpersonal manipulation, and egocentricity) while controlling for two method factors (knowledge/skills and attitudes/beliefs). Good composite reliability and differential predictive validity was observed.\ud \ud Conclusion: This brief measure of psychopathic traits uncontaminated with behavioural items can be used in the same way among participants with and without criminal history.

Despite a wealth of research finding that adolescents who carry handguns are involved in risky behaviors, there has been little exploration into the heterogeneity of this behavior. Using a pooled sample of 12- to 17-year-olds from the National Study on Drug Use and Health who report past-year handgun carrying ( N = 7,872), this study identified four subgroups of handgun carriers: low risk ( n = 3,831; 47.93%), alcohol and marijuana users ( n = 1,591; 20.16%), fighters ( n = 1,430; 19.40%), and severe externalizers ( n = 1,020, 12.51%). These subgroups differed on demographic, behavioral, and psychosocial characteristics. Findings are discussed in light of prevention and focused deterrence.

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to examine the dark figure of crime among federal sex offenders from the USA to quantify crime victims and sex crime events among those with no official criminal record.Design/methodology/approach– Using data on 119 offenders selected from a five-year census of sex offenders selected from a federal probation jurisdiction in the Midwestern United States, descriptive, partial correlations, and ROC-AUC models were conducted.Findings– In total, 69 percent of offenders self-reported a contact sexual offense during polygraph examination. In total, 34 offenders had zero official record of sexual abuse but non-zero self-reported history of sexual abuse. These 34 clients offended against 148 victims that potentially denoted a minimum number of 148 sex crime events, a median number of 1,480 sex crime events, a mean number of 32,101 sex crime events, and a maximum number of 827,552 sex crime events. Total paraphilias were not predictive of self-reported sexual offending but were strongly associated with prolific self-reported sexual offending.Originality/value– The dark figure of sexual offending is enormous and the revelation of this information is facilitated by polygraph examination of federal sex offenders. Ostensibly non-contact sex offenders such as those convicted of possession of child pornography are very likely to have a history of contact sexual offending. Consistent with the containment model, polygraph examinations of the sexual history of offenders convicted of sexual offenses should be required to facilitate public safety.

In community and correctional settings, gang status is a robust predictor of offending, unfortunately relatively few studies have considered behavioral disorders of offenders and whether these disorders mediate the gang-offending relationship. Drawing on a near population of correctional clients on federal supervised release, negative binomial regression and ROC-AUC models found that gang variables were rendered insignificant or were generally weak classifiers of severe offending once behavioral disorders were specified. The only exception was security threat group status that was robustly associated with prison misconduct. Gang researchers should consider behavioral disorders and other psychopathology of gang members to inform theory and research.

Although sexual homicide offenders (SHOs) evince personality disorders, few prior studies have examined all personality disorders or utilized control groups of offenders. Drawing on data from 616 adult male sex offenders including 85 who were SHOs, the current study examined the personality profile of the SHOs, by comparing them with a group of violent nonhomicidal sex offenders (VNHSOs) and a group of nonhomicidal sex offenders (NHSOs) on clinical diagnostics of personality disorders and various crime characteristics. The personality profile of SHOs is comprised primarily of Schizoid and Borderline Personality Disorders, and these offenders were significantly likely to select a victim, use a weapon, and use drugs and alcohol before their offenses, but less likely to force their victim to engage in sexual acts or humiliate them. The comorbidity of Schizoid, Borderline, and Antisocial Personality Disorder features presents unique personality dysfunction that facilitates the lethal sexual violence of SHOs relative to their nonhomicidal sexual offender peers.