Mental Imagery among Young Violent Offenders: Vividness and Controllability

Abstract

Severely aggressive persons with antisocial and psychopathic tendencies are suggested to have deficits in their imagery processes (Gorenstein, 1991). Based on empirical evidence, our aim is to analyze the relationship between criminal violent behavior and mental imagery. We compared characteristics of mental imagery, such as mental vividness and controllability, between groups of young violent male offenders ( n = 28, average age = 19 years) and non-violent young men ( n = 29, average age = 18 years). We hypothesized that young offenders with a history of severe violent crime would show a lower level of vividness and controllability than non-offenders. The vividness of mental imagery was assessed by the randomized, short Betts' Questionnaire upon Mental Imagery by Sheehan (SQMI) and controllability of the images by the modified Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire (VVIQ). We used SES as a control variable. According to a MANOVA, we did not find statistically significant differences between the groups, whether controlling for SES or not. However, the results of Univariate tests showed that the violent offenders had lower level of imagery vividness in the sensory domains of olfactory and tactile senses than non-offenders. Moreover, against our hypothesis, the violent offenders showed more ability to control their imagery process, and they created more vivid images in contextual domains, especially in tasks involving imagery of neutral, calming, and social scenes.