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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.

Career criminals account for more than half of the crime in society and an even larger proportion of the most violent offenses, including homicide. In recent years, biosocial criminologists have specified the etiological bases of pathological criminality using data from twin and genetic studies. Coupled with environmental factors, several endophenotypes (e.g., self-regulation, self-control, neuropsychological functioning, and temperament) connect biological vulnerabilities to behavioral phenotypes. The antisocial repertoire of career criminals is traceable across life as aggressive and antisocial conduct continues from early childhood through adolescence and into adulthood. Prevention programs and interventions can reduce the incidence of career criminality.

Research on epigenetic mechanisms is gaining traction, yet is poorly understood by criminologists and behavioral scientists. The current objective is to review relevant studies of interest to behavioral scientists who study crime, and to translate admittedly challenging scientific information into text that is digestible to the average criminologist. Using systematic search procedures the authors identified and reviewed 41 studies of epigenetic mechanisms in psychiatric and behavioral phenotypes among humans. Findings revealed significant epigenetic effects in an assortment of genes that are implicated in the etiology of depression, suicidality, callous-unemotional traits, and chronic and intergenerational aggressive behavior. Several polymorphisms that mediate the HPA axis, neurotransmission, immune response, brain development, serotonin synthesis, and other processes were found. Although prescriptive knowledge based on epigenetic findings to date is premature, epigenetics is a new and exciting scientific frontier not too different in spirit from Lamarck's observations centuries ago.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether proactive and reactive antisocial cognition mediate the effect of Factors 1 (core personality features) and 2 (behavioral deviance) of the Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version (PCL: YV; Forth, Kosson, & Hare, 2003) on violent offending. In this study Bandura et al.'s (1996) Moral Disengagement (MD) scale and the Impulse Control (IC) scale of the Weinberger Adjustment Inventory (WAI; Weinberger & Schwartz, 1990) served as proxies for proactive and reactive antisocial cognition, respectively. It was hypothesized that proactive antisocial cognition (MD) would mediate the Factor 1-violence relationship and that both proactive antisocial cognition and reactive antisocial cognition (IC) would mediate the Factor 2-violence relationship. A 3-wave path analysis of data from 1,354 adjudicated delinquents produced results consistent with the first part of the hypothesis (i.e., proactive antisocial mediation of the Factor 1-violence relationship) but inconsistent with the second part of the hypothesis (i.e., only proactive antisocial cognition mediated the Factor 2-violence relationship). Whereas the direct path from Factor 1 to violent offending was no longer significant when MD and IC were taken into account, the direct path from Factor 2 to violent offender remained significant even after MD and IC were included as mediators. This suggests that whereas proactive antisocial cognition plays a major role in mediating the Factor 1-violence relationship, the Factor 2-violence relationship is mediated by proactive antisocial cognition and variables not included or not adequately covered in the current study.

Purpose Most prior research on psychopathy and institutional misconduct/violence occurs with adult samples and comparatively less is known about the nature of this relationship among serious, violent juvenile offenders. Methods A subsample of 159 male serious and violent offenders interviewed in custody facilities in British Columbia, Canada as part of the Vancouver Incarcerated Serious and Violent Young Offender Study were used. Bivariate, ROC-AUC, and Poisson regression models examined the association between psychopathy and violent misconduct and exposure to violence with different specifications and separately for Caucasian and Aboriginal youth. Results Overall, youth with stronger symptoms of psychopathy evince more misconduct, are more violent, and break more institutional rules than their less psychopathic peers; however, the effects are relatively small, and ROC-AUC models reveal generally unimpressive classification accuracy. Conclusions Although psychopathy is a risk factor for violent misconduct, its effects are measurement-variant (e.g., total scores, factor scores, and item scores) and differ for Caucasian and Aboriginal serious offenders.

•Problems with criminology’s incorporation of the psychopathy construct are discussed.•The CAPP model of psychopathy is introduced.•Causal mechanisms underlying offending trajectories are proposed.

Purpose The extant criminal career literature supports the assertion that risk factors for violent offending are the same as those for non-violent offending. However, such studies have not examined the role of psychopathic personality disturbance (PPD) in the development of persistent violence across the life course. A situational action theory perspective was used to help illustrate the utility of PPD in explaining persistent violent offending. Methods Convictions for violent and non-violent offenses were measured for Canadian male ( n = 262) and female ( n = 64) offenders at each year between ages 12 and 28. Semi-parametric group-based modeling was used to identify joint trajectories of violent and non-violent offending. Symptoms of adolescent PPD and other criminogenic risk factors were also measured. Results Through the joint trajectory model, five violent and five non-violent trajectories were identified. PPD emerged as a strong predictor of membership in the trajectory associated with chronic violent offending but lower levels of non-violent offending. Conclusions Contrary to earlier criminal career research, the most persistent violent offenders were not also the most frequent general offenders. Theories that help explain why individuals are involved in persistent violence are needed. Incorporating PPD into such a theoretical framework appears necessary.

Purpose Criminal career research has recently found that symptoms of psychopathy are more prevalent among offenders following chronic offending trajectories. In the current study, the ability of psychopathy to predict involvement in chronic offending trajectories above other criminogenic risk factors was examined. Methods Criminal convictions were measured for Canadian male ( n = 262) and female ( n = 64) offenders at each year between ages 12 and 28. Semi-parametric group-based modeling identified four unique trajectories labeled bell-shape offenders (27.9% of sample), slow desisters (28.5%), slow rising chronic offenders (19.0%), and high rate chronic offenders (24.5%). Results The four and three factor model of the PCL: YV were associated with the most chronic and serious offending trajectory even after controlling for a variety of relevant criminogenic risk factors. Self-reported involvement in weekly physical fights was a significant predictor of trajectory group membership, but most criminogenic risk factors were more informative of the strength of the relationship between higher symptoms of psychopathy and offending trajectories than of a direct effect of a specific risk factor on the unfolding of offending. Conclusions Interpersonal and affective symptoms of psychopathy were not related to chronic offending. Future research should examine whether these symptoms are related specifically to involvement in violent offending.

Background and method Recent and emerging research demonstrates the importance of genetic factors, temperament, and psychopathic personality for understanding criminality especially more severe forms of it. Drawing on diverse interdisciplinary research, we review recent studies in behavior genetics, child development, psychology, social work, criminology, and other areas that bear on serious criminality. Results We suggest that genes, temperament, and psychopathic personality are the root ingredients of criminality and underscore the importance of a wide range of topics including neurobehavioral disorders, personality disorder, aggression, violence, and crime. Conclusion Similar to debates in psychology and psychiatry, we encourage further research on the basic constitutional foundation of criminality as a means to guide theory and research in criminology and criminal justice.

The goal of the present study is to clarify the heterogeneity of risky behav- iors (such as substance use, gambling, and crime) and psychiatric disorders among a large sample of 5304 nationally representative adults who acknowledge engaging in sexually-impulsive behaviors. Participants were selected from more than 43,000 re- spondents of the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC). Latent class analysis was used to identify subgroups of sexually-impulsive individuals and then multinomial regression was used to identify the relative risk for comorbidity with related impulsive behaviors or psychiatric disorders. Results showed that a four class solution provided the best fit and revealed higher odds of experiencing specific comorbid risky behaviors or psychiatric disorders based on class membership. Results challenge the widely held notion that self-regulatory behaviors are impacted globally, and instead suggest that certain self-regulatory behaviors are more likely to be impacted when other underlying conditions are present in sexually-impulsive individ- uals. Implications of this heterogeneity and recommendations for health care providers are discussed.

Legal socialization is the process through which young people develop beliefs in the legitimacy of the law and legal system. Research has examined how perceptions of interactions with authority figures influence beliefs regarding the legitimacy of laws and legal system, thereby shaping compliance with the law (Fagan and Tyler in Soc Justice Res 18:217–242, 2005). Child welfare caseworkers play an integral role in children and youths’ experiences in the child welfare system. However, limited research exists examining the relationship between youths’ perceptions of caseworkers and outcomes such as delinquency. The goal of this study is to address how perceptions of a youth’s child welfare caseworker influence legal socialization and whether it is related to self-reports of delinquency. The sample (n = 113) is from youth in two juvenile justice residential facilities. Least trimmed square regressions examine the relationship between perceptions of child welfare caseworkers and legal socialization as a composite measure and its components. The overall measure and individual components are then regressed on self-reports of delinquency. Results indicate youth with more negative perceptions of caseworkers view the legal system as less legitimate and exhibit lower overall legal socialization. Legal socialization is significantly related to delinquency. Findings suggest that, similar to other authority figures, perceptions of child welfare caseworkers are linked to young people’s legal socialization and that legal socialization is related to delinquent behavior. Thus, professionals should be aware of the important role of their relationships when working with children and youth.

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.

Objective: Juvenile offenders face increased liability for psychiatric disorders and greater psychopathology, but little is known about the psychiatric status of former juvenile delinquents as adults. Method: Drawing on data from Wave 1 and Wave 2 of the NESARC, logistic regression models examine correlates of psychiatric disorders in a large nationally representative sample of former juvenile detainees in adulthood (n = 1177) compared to adults who did not have a history of juvenile offending (n = 33,193). Further, we explored the psychosocial correlates associated with the increased likelihood of psychiatric disorders among former juvenile detainees. Results: Nearly half of former juvenile detainees met criteria for one or more psychiatric disorders in the past twelve months and approximately two-thirds meet criteria for any lifetime personality disorder. Compared to the general population, former juvenile detainees not only denote greater psychiatric comorbidity across a range of affective, personality, and substance use disorders but are also more likely to report childhood adversity. Conclusions: Former juvenile detainees experience significantly greater and more varied psychiatric problems across adulthood.

The evidence is clear that substance use and drug problems often accompany other antisocial behavior generally and violent behavior specifically; however, the specificity of the drug/violence nexus is less clear. Using data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) between 2008 and 2012, the current study examined the prevalence and possible heterogeneity of substance use among serious violent offenders in the United States. Three latent classes were discovered: Class 1 (61.18% of sample) who displayed limited substance use morbidity, Class 2 (28.17% of sample) who displayed comorbid alcohol and marijuana use disorders, and Class 3 (10.65% of sample) who displayed polydrug abuse/dependence and severe criminal careers. Additional results indicated that the most serious violent offenders have substance use problems that appear amenable to treatment; however, the most antisocial violent offenders also have the most severe drug problems. Implications of study findings for the epidemiology of antisocial behavior and correctional interventions are discussed.

There has been a great deal of research revealing that psychopathy is related to criminal involvement and other measures of antisocial behavior. However, the generalizability of these findings is limited because of some potential problems with measurement and because of the overreliance on forensic samples and the relative lack of psychopathy measures in national samples. The current study addresses these gaps in the existing psychopathy literature by examining the association between a Five-Factor Model–based measure of psychopathic personality traits and criminal justice outcomes in a nationally representative sample of males and females. Analysis of data drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) revealed that psychopathic personality traits predicted the probability of being arrested, of being incarcerated, and of being sentenced to probation for both males and females. Additional analyses revealed that the psychopathic personality traits scale was also associated with a self-reported delinquency scale. We concluded by discussing the importance of the concept of psychopathy and psychopathic personality traits to criminological theory and research.

Purpose To describe main findings from a special issue on protective factors against youth offending and violence. Contributors from eleven major prospective longitudinal studies were asked to conduct analyses of “direct ameliorative effects” for high-risk individuals (i.e. risk-based protective factors) as well as analyses of “interactive protective effects” for both high-risk and low-risk individuals (i.e. buffering protective factors). Methods Beyond variations in analytical strategies that are connected with the actual data available within each longitudinal study, it is a particular strength that contributors were told that they should feel free to present any type of analyses on main and/or interactive effects of protective factors against offending and that all results are important irrespective of whether effects were statistically significant or not. Results A number of consistent findings emerge across the studies described in the edited volume, such as the notable increase and decrease in offending and violence as a function of cumulative risk and protective factor indices respectively. There are also different protective effects across the various (individual, family, school etc.) domains and at different developmental stages across several studies that might be related to variations in measurement and other methodological features. Conclusions Most protective factors that emerge from these diverse studies in different geographic and sociopolitical contexts are in concordance with the broader literature on resilience, thus conveying a powerful message of universality of results. Further research on age-specific, gender-specific and context-specific predictors of resilience is warranted, with findings feeding into future intervention planning through a careful research strategy.

Adverse childhood experiences are associated with a wide range of behavioral, health, and psychiatric deficits and have recently been used to study the development of serious offending careers. Unfortunately, this research paradigm has largely ignored forensic populations. This study utilized the adverse childhood experiences framework to examine the associations between exposure to violence, victimization, and total adverse childhood experiences on sexual homicide using a sample of 616 incarcerated adult male sexual offenders from Canada 85 of whom committed sexual homicide. Epidemiological tables of odds revealed that a gradient of adverse childhood experiences was associated with sexual homicide, but that the most significant risks were for offenders who had the most extensive abuse histories. In adjusted models, exposure to violence, victimization, and total adverse childhood experiences increased the odds of sexual homicide by 334%, 249%, and 546%, respectively. These effects intensified in models adjusted for childhood enuresis, cruelty to animals, parental abandonment, deviant sexual behaviors, poor self-image, and sexual problems to 559%, 326%, and 849%, respectively. The adverse childhood experiences framework is a systematic way to organize the criminogenic developmental sequela in sexual homicide.

Adverse childhood experiences are associated with an array of health, psychiatric, and behavioral problems including antisocial behavior. Criminologists have recently utilized adverse childhood experiences as an organizing research framework and shown that adverse childhood experiences are associated with delinquency, violence, and more chronic/severe criminal careers. However, much less is known about adverse childhood experiences vis-à-vis specific forms of crime and whether the effects vary across race and ethnicity. Using a sample of 2520 male confined juvenile delinquents, the current study used epidemiological tables of odds (both unadjusted and adjusted for onset, total adjudications, and total out of home placements) to evaluate the significance of the number of adverse childhood experiences on commitment for homicide, sexual assault, and serious persons/property offending. The effects of adverse childhood experiences vary considerably across racial and ethnic groups and across offense types. Adverse childhood experiences are strongly and positively associated with sexual offending, but negatively associated with homicide and serious person/property offending. Differential effects of adverse childhood experiences were also seen among African Americans, Hispanics, and whites. Suggestions for future research to clarify the mechanisms by which adverse childhood experiences manifest in specific forms of criminal behavior are offered.

Adult antisocial behavior is almost always predated by delinquency during childhood or adolescence; however, there is also evidence of adult-onset criminal offending. This study examined this controversial subgroup of offenders using self-reported and official data from a total population of federal correctional clients selected from the Midwestern United States. Difference of means t-tests, chi-square tests, and logistic regression models found that 11.7% of clients had an adult onset of offending and 2.7% of clients (n = 23) had an onset occurring at age 60 years or older. This group-introduced as de novo advanced adult-onset offenders-had high socioeconomic status, mixed evidence of adverse childhood experiences, and virtually no usage of drugs with the exception of alcohol. These offenders were primarily convicted of social security and white-collar crimes and evinced remarkably low psychopathology and criminal risk. More research is needed to replicate the phenomenon of de novo advanced adult-onset offending.

Multiple criminological perspectives have focused on drifters—individuals who travel about without concrete plans for housing or gainful employment. Drawing on data from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC), the current study provides a large-scale epidemiological investigation of drifters. Logistic regression and latent class analyses revealed evidence of 1) normative, 2) psychologically distressed, and 3) comorbid antisocial drifters. Normative drifters differ from the general population by their alcohol and drug abuse and somewhat elevated antisocial behavior. Psychologically distressed drifters were predominately female, involved in domestic violence, were at highest odds of being diagnosed with a mental health disorder, and were characterized by poor health and disability. Finally, comorbid antisocial drifters were substantially more likely to be engaged in all forms of violent and non-violent antisocial behavior, substance abuse, and were the most dangerous. Implications for theory and research are discussed.

article i nfo Available online xxxx Purpose: A growing number of studies have examined the immigrant paradox with respect to antisocial behavior and crimeintheUnitedStates.However, thereremains a needfor a comprehensive examination of theintergen- erational nature of violence and antisocial behavior among immigrants using population-based samples. Methods: The present study, employing data from Wave I and II data of the National Epidemiologic Survey of Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC), sought to address these gaps by examining the prevalence of nonvi- olentcriminalandviolentantisocialbehavioramong first,second,andthird-generationimmigrantsandcompare these to the prevalence found among non-immigrants and each other in the United States. Results:Thereisclearevidenceofanintergenerationalseverity-basedgradientinthe relationshipbetweenimmi- grant status and antisocial behavior and crime. The protective effect of nativity is far-and-away strongest among first-generation immigrants, attenuates substantially among second-generation immigrants, and essentially disappears among third-generation immigrants. These patterns were also stable across gender. Conclusion: The present study is among the first to examine the intergenerational nature of antisocial behavior and crime among immigrants using population-based samples. Results provide robust evidence that nativity as a protective factor for immigrants wanes with each successive generation.

A growing body of evidence has highlighted the relationship between narcissism and violence. Importantly, however, the predominance of this evidence comes from experimental tests or small-scale samples that most often overlook the contribution of low self-control to explicating the relationship. The present study refers to the National Epidemiological Study of Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC) to assess narcissism, low self-control, and violence among a nationally representative sample. Using Latent Class Analyses (LCA), four classes of individuals are identified, and multinomial regression models indicate that narcissism and low self-control are associated with a range of violent acts among these groups. Most importantly, results show that the class of individuals that is high in narcissism and deficient in self-control is far and away the most prone to violence. Together, these findings lend important nationally representative support to recent experimental and meta-analytical conclusions suggesting that the co-occurrence of narcissism and low self-control has significant implications for our understanding of violence. Limitations of this study and avenues for future research are discussed. Keywords: Juvenile justice Language: en

There is minimal research that has investigated the characteristics distinguishing youth who commit murder to other juvenile offenders. Of the research that has been done, scholars have identified a wide variety of factors that distinguish these offenders, including poor family environments, emotional and social problems, poor mental health, and behavioral disorders. Using data from Pathways to Desistance, a study of 1,354 serious youthful offenders, we examined how 8 demographic characteristics and 35 risk factors distinguish between those youth who were charged with some type of homicide and those youth who were not charged with any type of homicide. We find that only 18 (1.33%) youth were charged with a homicide offense. Among the predictors, age, intelligence quotient (IQ), exposure to violence, perceptions of community disorder, and prevalence of gun carrying are significantly different across the two groups. Results from a rare-events logistic regression that simultaneously examined the relationship between these five risk factors and their ability to distinguish between the two groups indicate that only lower IQ and a greater exposure to violence were significant. Finally, a higher number of risk factors were associated with a higher likelihood that youth would be charged with homicide.

Objectives Ascertaining the effect of treatment on recidivism is a core area of investigation in criminology and corrections research. The two objectives of the current analysis are: (1) to determine the true effect of treatment regimen completion on time to recidivism controlling for propensity to complete treatment; and (2) to examine the sensitivity of results under various propensity score methods.

BACKGROUND: There is some evidence that antisocial individuals, including young delinquents, are significantly more likely than people in the general population to incur a traumatic brain injury (TBI). Extant studies are hampered by methodological limitations, such as small sample sizes, lack of control for confounding effects, and use of single sites and may lack representativeness. HYPOTHESIS: The hypothesis for this study is that young offenders with a history of TBI will not only be at higher risk of impulsivity and negative emotionality than their non-injured peers but also that those with TBI will have had more previous victimisation experiences. METHODS: Data from two sites (Philadelphia, PA and Phoenix, AZ) in a substantial longitudinal, prospective study - the Pathways to Desistance Study - were used to compare young people (average age 16 years) who reported TBI with those who did not. Independent variables were behavioural, criminogenic and psychosocial measures. RESULTS: Male youths were about twice as likely as young females to report TBI. Such injury was associated with higher impulsivity and negative emotion ratings, even after allowing for potentially confounding factors, including sex. In addition, TBI was independently associated with self-reported experience of victimisation. CONCLUSIONS/IMPLICATIONS: This extends the generalisability of earlier suggestions of a relationship between TBI and offending, and various factors thought likely to mediate the relationship. The implications are, thus, that it is likely to be of practical value to screen young people who get into the criminal justice system for a history of TBI, and thus to allow for more specific tailoring of interventions to reduce the range of associated problems, including likely reoffending. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Language: en

Background Temperament has been shown to be associated with behavior for millennia but has not been explicitly used in a theory of crime. Methods This state-of-the-art review incorporates theory and research from over 300 studies from developmental psychology, psychiatry, genetics, neuroscience, and criminology to introduce a temperament-based theory of antisocial conduct with criminal justice system implications. Findings Two temperamental constructs—effortful control and negative emotionality—are significantly predictive of self-regulation deficits and behavioral problems in infancy, in toddlerhood, in childhood, in adolescence, and across adulthood. Conclusion Unlike other theories that focus merely on explaining problem behaviors, our temperament approach also explains negative and aversive interactions with criminal justice system practitioners and associated maladjustment or noncompliance with the criminal justice system. A program of research is also offered to examine and test the theory.

The insanity defense is among the most controversial legal constructs that has attracted the attention of scholars, practitioners and policy makers. Here, we conducted a systematic review of the literature spanning 2004 to 2019 that produced 58 studies of insanity defense research. Findings are organized according to: (1) assessments and assessment-related issues, (2) juror decision-making in defense trials, (3) characteristics of insanity acquittees, (4) release recommendations for insanity acquittees, (5) revocation of conditional release status of insanity acquittees, and (6) additional areas of insanity defense research. Implications of the research for the insanity defense and cognate legal issues are proffered.

Background Adverse childhood experiences are associated with multiple negative behavioral outcomes and childhood sexual abuse (CSA) is particularly damaging. There is controversial evidence that CSA has a specialized effect on subsequent sexual offending. Objective The current study tested the hypothesis that CSA is associated with sexual offending. Method Using a near-population of correctional clients on supervised release in the Midwestern United States, we examined the hypothesis with hierarchical negative binomial regression models. Results CSA was significantly associated with official charges for rape/sexual abuse despite controls for sex, race, age, arrest onset, total arrest charges, total adverse childhood experiences, Antisocial Personality Disorder, sexual sadism, and pedophilia. Age of onset of CSA was also inversely associated with sexual offending with effect sizes ranging between 2–5 standardized z-scores. Conclusion The current study provides significant evidence that CSA is associated with later sexual offending even when accounting for powerful clinical and criminological covariates.

Although recent research on crime and violence among immigrants suggests a paradox--where immigrants are more socially disadvantaged yet less likely to commit crime--previous research is limited by issues of generalizability and assessment of the full depth of antisocial behavior.We surmount these limitations using data from waves I and II of the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC) and compare immigrants (N = 7,320) from Asia, Africa, Europe, and Latin America to native-born Americans (N = 34,622) with respect to violent and nonviolent forms of antisocial behavior.After controlling for an extensive array of confounds, results indicate that immigrants are significantly less antisocial despite being more likely to have lower levels of income, less education, and reside in urban areas. These findings hold for immigrants from major regions of the world including Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America.This study confirms and extends prior research on crime and antisocial behavior, but suggests that it is premature however to think of immigrants as a policy intervention for treating high crime areas.

Moral engagement produces strong emotions that help individuals refrain from serious criminal behavior, but what if a youth is unable to experience these emotions. Based on a sample of adjudicated delinquents and using a series of structural equation models, we test whether moral disengagement varies by level of psychopathy in relation to criminal onset and assess this stability across gender. Psychopathic personality features, moral disengagement, and family stress intermixed in diverse ways depending on the severity of psychopathic personality and gender. At higher levels of psychopathy, the effect of psychopathy on criminal onset was unmediated. However, moral disengagement was found to have mediating effects on criminal onset at lower levels of psychopathy. Study findings lend support to the hypothesis that due to core emotional deficits, youth high on psychopathy are unaffected by the mechanisms of moral disengagement. Results are discussed in light of theories of morality and psychopathy and the treatment of moral deficits among youthful offenders.

A burgeoning criminological literature has identified important intersections between public health, crime, and antisocial behavior. This study is based on public-use data collected between 2006 and 2010 as part of the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) and an analytical sample of men ( N = 84,054) and women ( N = 95,308) between the ages of 18 and 64. Latent class analysis (LCA) identified three classes: a large normative group, a small drug-involved group, and a criminal-justice-involved group. Chronic health conditions that are more closely associated with longer term medical problems and perhaps cumulative stress such as heart disease and diabetes are not linked to criminal-justice-system-involved or drug-involved offenders. Medical problems that are more closely related to an antisocial lifestyle such as sexually transmitted diseases, pancreatitis, and hepatitis were found to be more prevalent among antisocial subgroups in this sample.

Fledgling psychopathy is a construct that has proven useful in organizing the nomological network of conduct problems and psychopathology in children and adolescents. Drawing on data from an institutionalized sample of delinquents (n = 252), the current study compared ADHD, CD, and ADHD+CD youth on psychopathic personality features and their association with pathological delinquency. Youths with ADHD+CD were significantly more psychopathic than their peers. Although callousness, unemotionality, and remorselessness are generally theorized to define the fledgling psychopathic youth, ROC-AUC models found that thrillseeking and impulsiveness were the strongest classification variables for delinquency and violent delinquency at the 90th percentiles. Implications for research and practice with antisocial youth are proffered.

One of the most consistent findings in the criminological literature is that African American males are arrested, convicted, and incarcerated at rates that far exceed those of any other racial or ethnic group. This racial disparity is frequently interpreted as evidence that the criminal justice system is racist and biased against African American males. Much of the existing literature purportedly supporting this interpretation, however, fails to estimate properly specified statistical models that control for a range of individual-level factors. The current study was designed to address this shortcoming by analyzing a sample of African American and White males drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). Analysis of these data revealed that African American males are significantly more likely to be arrested and incarcerated when compared to White males. This racial disparity, however, was completely accounted for after including covariates for self-reported lifetime violence and IQ. Implications of this study are discussed and avenues for future research are offered.

Behavioral genetic research has consistently revealed that genetic factors explain a significant proportion of variance in antisocial phenotypes. Despite some initial evidence, the extent to which genetic factors influence adolescent victimization remains largely undetermined. The current study partially addresses this gap in the literature by employing an adoption-based research design to estimate genetic influences on victimization. Participants consisted of adoptees drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). Multivariate analyses revealed that adoptees who had a biological criminal father or a biological criminal mother were at increased risk for being victimized in adolescence and also to be victimized repeatedly. This is the first study to use an adoption-based research design to show an association between genetic factors and the risk for adolescent victimization.

Gang membership is a robust correlate of homicide offending and victimization, but little is known about the association between gang status and various abnormal forms of homicide (e.g., multiple-victim homicide, sexual homicide, and abduction homicide). The current study utilized data from a large sample of 618 male convicted murderers to empirically examine gang status and diverse forms of homicide perpetration. Gang-involved offenders were nearly three times as likely to commit a normal homicide characterized as a single-victim murder. However, gang members were 64 % less likely to perpetrate multiple-victim murder. In other models, gang status reduced the likelihood of sexual homicide by 75 % and reduced the likelihood of abduction homicide by 56 %. These findings present an anomaly in the gang-homicide literature, and suggestions for additional research are offered.

Despite research demonstrating that approximately 5% of study populations are composed of severely antisocial persons who account for a disproportionate share of problem behaviors, there have been no nationally representative studies assessing this phenomenon among adolescents. Using a large nationally representative sample ( N = 18,614), we identified a severe group (4.7% of respondents) characterized by involvement in varied and intensive externalizing behaviors, greater internalizing, lower academic achievement, and less parental involvement. The current study is the first nationally representative study of criminal careers/externalizing behaviors among adolescents in the United States, which is convergent with prior research and theory.

Objectives The purpose of this study was to assess whether antisocial cognition is capable of mediating the well-documented relationship between past and future criminality. Methods Data for this study came from 812 members of the four-wave National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). Antisocial cognition was measured with nine self-report items reflecting a thrill-seeking, manipulative, callous, deceptive, and rule-breaking attitude. The predictor variable (delinquency), outcome variable (crime), and four observed confounding covariates (low self-control, delinquent peers, maternal attachment, and intelligence) were also measured via self-report. Results Causal mediation analysis revealed that antisocial cognition, assessed during wave 3 of the Add Health study, partially mediated the relationship between delinquency at wave 2 and criminality at wave 4. This mediational effect was moderately robust to potential pre-treatment confounds from constructs central to four major criminological theories (low self-control, delinquent peers, maternal attachment, and intelligence) and to unobserved confounds from three demographic variables (age, gender, and race). Conclusions These results suggest that antisocial cognition is both a cause and effect of antisocial behavior. Consequently, antisocial cognition is not only an important dynamic risk/needs factor, but should also be addressed in programs designed to ameliorate current criminality and prevent future antisocial behavior.

An emerging body of empirical research has revealed that nonshared environmental factors are associated with explaining variance in measures of psychopathy and psychopathic personality traits. The current study adds to this existing knowledge base by analyzing a measure of psychopathy derived, in part, from the five factor model in a sample of monozygotic (MZ) twin pairs drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. The results of the MZ twin difference scores analysis revealed that nonshared environmental factors found within the family were unrelated to between-twin differences in psychopathic personality traits. Only one nonshared factor--levels of self-control--consistently predicted psychopathy. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings and the limitations of our study.

Previous scholarship on juvenile case dispositions has suggested a complex relationship between legal and extra-legal factors. Previous studies, however, have suffered from methodological limitations of cross-sectional data that potentially overstated the salience of extra-legal factors. This study addressed that limitation using longitudinal case-management system data from a large southern state. The findings suggested a distinction between the first referral and subsequent referrals. Extra-legal factors, such as age, gender, and race contributed to formal case disposition in the first referral, but waned in referrals two through six. Legal factors significantly and robustly predicted formal case disposition in the first and subsequent referrals. Felony offense significantly increased the likelihood of a formal disposition across all referrals and previous case disposition significantly increased the likelihood of formal disposition in subsequent referrals. Concluding remarks focus on implications and future research.