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Offender Groups (offender + groups)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Psychology	83%

Selected Abstracts

Alcohol expectancies in convicted rapists and child molesters

CRIMINAL BEHAVIOUR AND MENTAL HEALTH, Issue 2 2001
Anu S. Aromäki PhD
Background Previous findings suggest that cognitive factors and expectancies related to drinking can mediate subjective sexual arousal as well as aggression in men. Our aim was to investigate the drinking habits and alcohol-related expectancies that might predispose men to sexually aggress in two groups of sexual offenders. Method Men convicted of rape (n = 10) were compared with men convicted of child molesting (n = 10) and with control subjects (n = 31). Current drinking habits (while not in prison) were assessed by self-report, and the extent of alcohol abuse was mapped by the Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test (MAST; Selzer, 1971). Cognitive expectancies related to alcohol use were explored by the standard Alcohol Expectancy Questionnaire (AEQ; Brown et al., 1980). Results The majority of the men who committed rape (70%) but only a third of the men convicted of child molesting were diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder. Alcohol abuse was common in men convicted of both rape and child molesting and the men convicted of rape expected significantly more positive effects from drinking than the control group. Both sex offender groups were the only groups to express significant alcohol-related cognitive expectancies linked to arousal and aggression. Expectancy patterns were directly linked to the antisocial personality characteristics. Conclusion Alcohol abuse is common in men who commit both rape and child molesting. Heavy drinking and the anticipation of alcohol effects such as sexual enhancement, arousal and aggression may facilitate sexual aggression in offenders with antisocial personality disorder. Copyright © 2001 Whurr Publishers Ltd. [source]

LIFE SPAN OFFENDING TRAJECTORIES OF A DUTCH CONVICTION COHORT,

CRIMINOLOGY, Issue 4 2005
ARJAN A.J. BLOKLAND
The aim of this paper is to describe the development of criminal behavior from early adolescence to late adulthood based on conviction data for a sample of Dutch offenders. Measuring over an age span of 12 to 72, we ask whether there is evidence for (1) criminal trajectories that are distinct in terms of time path, (2) a small group of persistent offenders, (3) criminal trajectories that are distinct in the mix of crimes committed, or, more specifically, persistent offenders disproportionately engaging in violent offences, and (4) different offender groups having different social profiles in life domains other than crime. The analysis is based on the conviction histories of the Dutch offenders in the Criminal Career and Life Course Study. Four trajectory groups were identified using a semi-parametric, group-based model: sporadic offenders, low-rate desisters, moderate-rate desisters and high-rate persisters. Analyses show that high-rate persisters engage in crime at a very substantial rate, even after age 50. Compared to other trajectory groups the high-rate persistent trajectory group disproportionately engages in property crimes rather than violent crimes. Also, these distinct trajectories are found to be remarkably similar across age cohorts. [source]

Life success of males on nonoffender, adolescence-limited, persistent, and adult-onset antisocial pathways: follow-up from age 8 to 42

AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR, Issue 2 2009
Lea Pulkkinen
Abstract A random sample of 196 males, drawn from the Jyväskylä Longitudinal Study of Personality and Social Development, was divided into four groups of offenders using information from government registers of convictions between ages 21 and 47, from local police registers searched at age 21, from a Self-Report Delinquency Scale administered at age 36, from a Life History Calendar for ages 15,42, and from personal interviews at ages 27, 36, and 42. The groups were: persistent offenders (offences before and after age 21; 29% of the men); adolescence-limited offenders (offences before age 21; 27%); adult-onset offenders (offences after age 21; 16%); and nonoffenders (28%). The profile of the persistent offenders included many characteristics of antisocial personality and problems of social and psychological functioning at all ages. In childhood and adolescence, the adolescence-limited offenders tended to display higher self-control than the other offenders indicated by less negative emotionality and higher constraint. In early middle age, they were well established in terms of work and marriage, but they differed from the nonoffenders in higher neuroticism, aggressiveness, and psychosomatic symptoms as did the other offender groups. The adult-onset offenders displayed an emotionally unstable personality, and in adulthood, they tended to be heavy users of alcohol. Parental SES did not differentiate the groups, but the parents of the persistent offenders tended to use alcohol heavily, and the social capital of the family tended to be low compared with the other groups. Aggr. Behav. 35:117,135, 2009. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]

Predictors and outcomes of persistent or age-limited registered criminal behavior: a 30-year longitudinal study of a Swedish urban population

AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR, Issue 2 2009
Lars R. Bergman
Abstract This study uses data from the longitudinal research program Individual Development and Adaptation, where an entire school-grade cohort of children in a middle-size Swedish city (n,1.300) has been followed from ages 10 to 43 and 48 for women and men, respectively. Our findings indicate that the patterns of offending across the life-course differ between genders, where males seem to initiate their offending earlier than females. Further, there are very few women on a persistent offending-trajectory. Focusing on precursors to as well as consequences of offending as indexed in official registers, our results indicate that individuals in the persistent offender group have the most pronounced adjustment problems in school- as well as in middle age. Individual characteristics and behaviors (e.g., aggression, hyperactivity, antisocial behavior) vary systematically between individuals with different developmental offending patterns. The combination of an unstable upbringing and own antisocial behavior seems to be especially predictive for criminality. For persistent offenders, the prevalence of alcohol and psychiatric problems at adult age is high for males and extremely high for females (nine out of ten and six out of ten for each of the two problem types for females). Further, the importance for adjustment of the two-dimensional variation in the number of crimes committed during adolescence and adult age seems to have been surprisingly well captured by the "crude" division into the four offender groups that were used. Aggr. Behav. 35:164,178, 2009. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]

Executive cognitive functioning and the recognition of facial expressions of emotion in incarcerated violent offenders, non-violent offenders, and controls

AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR, Issue 5 2007
Peter N.S. Hoaken
Violence is a social problem that carries enormous costs; however, our understanding of its etiology is quite limited. A large body of research exists, which suggests a relationship between abnormalities of the frontal lobe and aggression; as a result, many researchers have implicated deficits in so-called "executive function" as an antecedent to aggressive behaviour. Another possibility is that violence may be related to problems interpreting facial expressions of emotion, a deficit associated with many forms of psychopathology, and an ability linked to the prefrontal cortex. The current study investigated performance on measures of executive function and on a facial-affect recognition task in 20 violent offenders, 20 non-violent offenders, and 20 controls. In support of our hypotheses, both offender groups performed significantly more poorly on measures of executive function relative to controls. In addition, violent offenders were significantly poorer on the facial-affect recognition task than either of the other two groups. Interestingly, scores on these measures were significantly correlated, with executive deficits associated with difficulties accurately interpreting facial affect. The implications of these results are discussed in terms of a broader understanding of violent behaviour. Aggr. Behav. 33:412,421, 2007. © 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]

Death penalty support for special offender populations of legally convicted murderers: juveniles, the mentally retarded, and the mentally incompetent,

BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES & THE LAW, Issue 2 2004
Denise Paquette Boots M.A.
The U.S. Supreme Court recently re-examined the constitutionality of the death penalty in the context of two of three special offender populations of murderers (juveniles, mentally retarded, and mentally incompetent). The Court reaffirmed the imposition of the death penalty for juveniles 16 and 17, while reversing itself on the mentally retarded. In reaching its decision, the Court relied on society's "evolving standards of decency." Using Likert-type items, this study is the first to have prospective jurors assess support for the death penalty for these specific offender groups. The public's support for the execution of each of the groups is then compared with existing case law. Descriptive statistics and regression analyses indicate that, as expected, the levels of support for the applicability of capital punishment to the various special offender populations are much lower than that for the general adult offender. Moreover, these findings are congruent with the holdings of the Court with one notable exception: a slight majority of respondents supported executing the mentally incompetent. Reasons for the public's apparent departure from the Supreme Court holding prohibiting the execution of mentally incompetent convicted murderers are discussed. The Court's continued role in protecting marginalized populations from "cruel and unusual punishment" is explored in the context of strong public sentiment demanding justice and finality despite changes in offenders' mental capacity. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]