Non-criminal Population Research Articles

A discussion of early maladaptive schemas in men convicted sexual offenders in Poland.

Aim of the studyThis study aims to explore differences in the prevalence of early maladaptive schemas (EMS) in convicted sexual offenders (CSO’s) as compared to the general male population (control group).Subject or material and methodsThe study included 102 men incarcerated for sexual offences and 167 men from a non-criminal population. The study used the Polish version of Young’s schema questionnaire – YSQ-S3-PL.ResultsThe results demonstrated a higher degree of EMS severity in CSO except in the ‘impaired limits’ domain where non-criminal individuals scored higher. The individuals who have committed sexual offenses displayed more extensive and severe schemas than non-criminal / non-treated males (including more EMS domains).DiscussionThe study revealed nine early maladaptive schemas characterising the specific mind-set of male sex offender convicts. The results seem to illustrate well the genesis of the formation of a disordered personality as described by J. Young within the schema therapy concept. In the context of the cited studies, these structures – in addition to their important role in the development of psychopathology – appear to contribute to sexual offending.ConclusionsThe conclusion emerging from the findings is that EMS are an important problem for Individuals involved in sexual offending. A consideration of these schemas in the psychotherapy of CSO’s would help develop new and effective therapeutic protocols designed to treat that particular population and reduce the rate of repeat offending.

First-order periodic coupled systems with orderless lower and upper solutions

<abstract><p>We present some existence and localization results for periodic solutions of first-order coupled nonlinear systems of two equations, without requiring periodicity for the nonlinearities. The arguments are based on Schauder's fixed point theorem together with not necessarily well-ordered upper and lower solutions. A real-case scenario shows the applicability of our results to some population dynamics models, describing the interaction between a criminal and a non-criminal population with a law enforcement component.</p></abstract>

Modeling and analysis of crime prediction and prevention

Crime and corruptions are two major problems in developing nations. They spread like infectious disease in the population. Here, a nonlinear mathematical model is formulated and analyzed to study the interaction between criminal population and non-criminal population by considering non-monotone incidence rate. Non-monotone incidence rate shows a behavioral change in non-criminal populations. First, we consider constant recruitment and death type demography and then we take logistic growth type demography. For both the models the basic reproduction number $$R_0$$ is computed. All possible equilibria of the models are obtained and stabilities of these equilibria are discussed in details. Further these models are extended to optimal control problem to study the impact of time-dependent law enforcement rate on the size of criminal population. Numerical simulations are presented to illustrate our analytical findings.

Cooperation, punishment and organized crime: a lab-in-the-field experiment in southern Italy

This paper reports the results of an experimental investigation which provides insights into the social preferences of organized criminals and how these differ from those of “ordinary” criminals on the one hand and from those of the non-criminal population in the same geographical area on the other. We develop experimental evidence on cooperation and response to sanctions by running prisoner's dilemma and third party punishment games on three different pools of subjects; students, ordinary criminals and Camorristi (Neapolitan ‘Mafiosi’). The latter two groups were recruited from within prisons. Camorra prisoners show a high degree of cooperativeness and a strong tendency to punish defectors, as well as a clear rejection of the imposition of external rules even at significant cost to themselves. The subsequent econometric analysis further enriches our understanding demonstrating inter alia that individuals’ locus of control and reciprocity are associated with quite different and opposing behaviours amongst different participant types; a strong sense of self-determination and reciprocity both imply a higher propensity to punish for Camorra inmates, but quite the opposite for ordinary criminals, further reinforcing the contrast between the behaviour of ordinary criminals and the strong internal mores of Camorra clans.

Dynamical analysis of a model of social behavior: Criminal vs non-criminal population

In this paper, we construct a model motivated by the well known predator-prey model to study the interaction between criminal population and non-criminal population. Our aim is to study various possibilities of interactions between them. First we model it using simple predator-prey model, then we modify it by considering the logistic growth of non-criminal population. We clearly deduce that the model with logistic growth is better than classical one. More precisely, the role of carrying capacity on the dynamics of criminal minded population is discussed. Further, we incorporate law enforcement term in the model and study its effect. The result obtained suggest that by incorporating enforcement law, the criminal population reduces from the very beginning, which resembles with real life situation. Our result indicates that the criminal minded population exist as long as coefficient of enforcement lc does not cross a threshold value and after this value the criminal minded population extinct. In addition, we also discuss the occurrence of saddle-node bifurcation in case of model system with law enforcement. Numerical examples and simulations are presented to illustrate the obtained results.

Callous-unemotional traits and neural responses to emotional faces in a community sample of young adults

Former studies suggest that the core features of psychopathy, namely the callous-unemotional (CU) traits are associated with emotional dysfunction characterized by atypical processing of other people's distress. Using a dimensional approach to CU traits, the current study aims to test neural activity during performance of a facial expression recognition task in a community sample of young adults. Forty-one participants (25 females, M age=25.44, SD=4.03) completed the Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits. Functional magnetic resonance imaging data were collected to measure neural responses to fearful, happy and sad faces as compared with neutral facial expressions. Region-of-interest analyses revealed that during exposure to fearful face expressions, blood oxygenation level-dependent responses were negatively associated with CU traits in the right anterior cingulate gyrus (ACCg), but not in the amygdala. These findings support that CU traits are related to a unique neural response to fearful faces in noncriminal population as well. It also highlights the importance of taking into account other regions outside the amygdala, in particular the ACC, when testing the relation between CU traits and fear response.

Delay discounting, self-control, and substance use among adult drug court participants.

The current study examined the relationship between two measures of impulsiveness and the odds of substance use among a sample of participants on an Australian drug court (n=80). Participants completed a computer-based delay discounting task, a paper-based delay discounting task, and a questionnaire-based measure of self-control. The delay discounting tasks measured individual differences in the value attributed to distal outcomes, which is one aspect of impulsive behavior that has been found to be over-represented among illicit drug users. The relationship between the measures of impulsiveness and the odds of substance use was assessed by fitting longitudinal panel regression models with adjustment for informative treatment dropout. Consistent with previous research, drug court participants were found to have higher discount rates (i.e. were more impulsive) than a noncriminal population of university students (n=101). Drug court participants also discounted delayed gains more than delayed losses. Delay discounting was not significantly associated with the odds of substance use on the drug court program. There was a positive relationship between the survey-based measure of impulsivity and the mean substance use frequency. The authors conclude that impulsivity is correlated with substance use among drug court participants but not when measuring impulsivity using a delay discounting paradigm.

Abolishing the stigma of punishments served

The Benthamite workhouse principle of ‘less eligibility’ dates back to the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 and, since its application to the sphere of criminal justice, has long dictated that prisoners and other lawbreakers should always be last in the queue for access to scant welfare resources because of the moral censure attached to their behaviour. This continues to be problematic for those advocating penal reform with debates about imprisonment often descending into objections to any material improvement in conditions on the basis that they would be unfair to ‘hard-working taxpayers’ or the supposedly ‘law-abiding majority’. An allied but lesser known principle is that of ‘non-superiority’ which Mannheim (1939) described as ‘the requirement that the condition of the criminal when he has paid the penalty for his crime should be at least not superior to that of the lowest classes of the non-criminal population’.

Evaluating emotion processing and trait anxiety as predictors of non-criminal psychopathy

This study’s primary aim was to investigate if trait anxiety and other emotion processing variables would be additive predictors that will differentially predict primary and secondary psychopathy, as previous research has yet to examine the relative contributions of these constructs in a non-criminal population. A convenience community sample (N=470) was obtained using an online survey. Structural equation modelling analyses demonstrated that trait anxiety, reappraisal and emotional manipulation are significant predictors of primary psychopathy. Trait anxiety, emotion manipulation, poor emotional skills and general emotion dys-regulation were found to be significant predictors of secondary psychopathy. From these findings, particularly noteworthy relationships are those between trait anxiety and secondary psychopathy (16% of the variance), and emotion manipulation and primary psychopathy (17.64% of the variance). In addition, there was preliminary evidence that emotion processing variables may partially mediate the relationship between trait anxiety and psychopathy subtypes. These findings have important implications, including the relevance of the findings to psychopathy conceptualised as a personality trait and the applicability of the findings in different non-forensic settings.

Abolishing the stigma of punishments served

The Benthamite workhouse principle of ‘less eligibility’ dates back to the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 and, since its application to the sphere of criminal justice, has long dictated that prisoners and other lawbreakers should always be last in the queue for access to scant welfare resources because of the moral censure attached to their behaviour. This continues to be problematic for those advocating penal reform with debates about imprisonment often descending into objections to any material improvement in conditions on the basis that they would be unfair to ‘hard-working taxpayers’ or the supposedly ‘law-abiding majority’. An allied but lesser known principle is that of ‘non-superiority’ which Mannheim (1939) described as ‘the requirement that the condition of the criminal when he has paid the penalty for his crime should be at least not superior to that of the lowest classes of the non-criminal population’.

Relative mortality among criminals in Norway and the relation to drug and alcohol related offenses.

BackgroundRegistered offenders are known to have a higher mortality rate, but given the high proportion of offenders with drug-addiction, particularly among offenders with a custodial sentence, higher mortality is expected. While the level of overall mortality compared to the non-criminal population is of interest in itself, we also estimate the risk of death by criminal records related to substance abuse and other types of criminal acts, and separate between those who receive a prison sentence or not.MethodsAge-adjusted relative risks of death for 2000–2008 were studied in a population based dataset. Our dataset comprise the total Norwegian population of 2.9 million individuals aged 15–69 years old in 1999, of whom 10% had a criminal record in the 1992–1999 period.ResultsIndividuals with a criminal record have twice the relative risk (RR) of death of the control group (non-offenders). Males with a record of use/possession of drugs and a prison record have an 11.9 RR (females, 15.6); males with a drug record but no prison record have a 6.9 RR (females 10.5). Males imprisoned for driving under the influence of substances have a 4.4 RR (females 5.6); males with a record of driving under the influence but no prison sentence have a 3.2 RR (females 6.5). Other male offenders with a prison record have a 2.8 RR (females 3.7); other male offenders with no prison record have a 1.7 RR (females 2.3).ConclusionSignificantly higher mortality was found for people with a criminal record, also for those without any record of drug use. Mortality is much higher for those convicted of substance-related crimes: more so for drug- than for alcohol-related crimes and for women.

Amygdala dysfunction attenuates frustration-induced aggression in psychopathic individuals in a non-criminal population

Individuals with psychopathy have an increased tendency toward certain types of aggression. We hypothesized that successful psychopaths, who have no criminal convictions but can be diagnosed with psychopathy in terms of personality characteristics, are skilled at regulating aggressive impulses, compared to incarcerated unsuccessful psychopaths. In this block-designed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, we sought to clarify the neural mechanisms underlying differences in frustration-induced aggression as a function of psychopathy in non-criminal populations. Twenty male undergraduate students who completed a self-report psychopathy questionnaire were scanned while they completed a task in which they either could or could not punish other individuals who made unfair offers of monetary distribution. Individuals with high psychopathic tendencies were less likely to make a decision to inflict costly punishment on people proposing unfair offers. During this decision-making, psychopathy was associated with less amygdala activity in response to the unfairness of offers. Moreover, the amygdala dysfunction in psychopathic individuals was associated with reduced functional connectivity with dopaminergic-related areas, including the striatum, when punishment was available compared to when it was unavailable. The possibility that levels of psychopathic traits in a regular population were milder than in incarcerated populations cannot be ruled out. The findings indicate that amygdala dysfunction underlies affective deficits of psychopathy. We propose that the insensitivity of the amygdala to the affective significance of social stimuli contributes to an increased risk of violation of social norms, but enhances the ability to attenuate impulses toward maladaptive aggression in successful psychopaths.

Relationship between psychopathy and indirect aggression use in a noncriminal population

Psychopathy has long been associated with increased use of direct aggression and violence, especially among male inmates. Little research has, of yet, considered the relation between psychopathy and indirect forms of aggression. The current research sought to investigate the relationship between psychopathy and indirect aggression in a noncriminal sample. The results indicated that there was a strong relationship between psychopathic traits and indirect aggression, with strong correlations between indirect aggression and both factor 1 (coldheartedness) and factor 3 (impulsive antisociality). This association remained significant even after the effects of direct aggression had been controlled for. Path analysis indicated that both direct and indirect aggression was underpinned by the same psychopathy factors. This suggests that high psychopathy scorers will utilize direct and indirect aggression equally and, as such, the choice of one type of aggression over the other may be dependant on either situational factors or external moderators.

Development and Preliminary Validation of a Self-Report Measure of Psychopathic Personality Traits in Noncriminal Population

Research on psychopathology has been hindered by persisting difficulties and controversies regarding its assessment. The primary goals of this set of studies were to (a) develop, and initiate the construct validation of, a self-report measure that assesses the major personality traits of psychopathy in noncriminal populations and (b) clarify the nature of these traits via an exploratory approach to test construction. This measure, the Psychopathic Personality Inventory (PPI), was developed by writing items to assess a large number of personality domains relevant to psychopathy and performing successive item-level factor analyses and revisions on three undergraduate samples. The PPI total score and its eight subscales were found to possess satisfactory internal consistency and test-retest reliability. In four studies with undergraduates, the PPI and its subscales exhibited a promising pattern of convergent and discriminant validity with self-report, psychiatric interview, observer rating, and family history data. In addition, the PPI total score demonstrated incremental validity relative to several commonly used self-report psychopathy-related measures. Future construct validation studies, unresolved conceptual issues regarding the assessment of psychopathy, and potential research uses of the PPI are outlined.

Elizabeth Packard: nineteenth-century crusader for the rights of mental patients.

In the United States the movement to build public asylums for the insane began in the early nineteenth century. Demographic changes, a growing sensitivity to social and medical problems, a surge of philanthropic giving by elite groups, and knowledge of significant medical and psychiatric developments in France and England all combined to give rise to a movement to establish both general and mental hospitals. Shocked by the conditions of insane persons in family attics, county poorhouses, and local jails, state after state assumed the burden of providing free or low-cost institutionalization for this afflicted class. Expensive large asylums began appearing in the rural heartlands of the more prosperous states before the Civil War, reflecting the popular view that insanity was a disease, requiring segregation from society and long-term medical care. Previously only deviants who had broken criminal or poor laws were likely to be deprived of their liberty. Under the new system the state reached out to a larger, less deviant and non-criminal population, whose boundaries were not well-defined. Given the increasing health and welfare needs of an industrializing society, and the lack of alternative solutions for the mentally disabled, it was inevitable that the asylum populations would continue to expand.

A STUDY OF SELECTIVE SERVICE LAW VIOLATORS

1. A study of 708 Selective Service Law violators admitted to the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners during World War II is presented. 2. The subjects naturally group themselves in three categories, namely, technical violators, Jehovah's Witnesses, and conscientious objectors. 3. Technical violators comprise the largest group. They differ very little from the run-of-the-mill prisoners. Only 25% of the technical violators would have been suitable for military service if they had submitted to induction. 4. Jehovah's Witnesses were the next largest group. They refused military service on the grounds that it would interfere with their religious activities or demanded to be exempted from all service on the grounds that they were ministers. Jehovah's Witnesses represent a segment of the noncriminal population of the country. Unlike the technical violators 80% would have been fit for military duty if they had submitted to induction. 5. The conscientious objectors were the least in numbers, but the most in nuisance value. Like the Jehovah's Witnesses the majority were not criminals in the ordinary sense of the word. They refused military or alternative service either because of religious or because of philosophical scruples against war. Only 37% would have been found fit for military duty if they had submitted to induction. 6. Suggestions are made for improving future Selective Service procedures.

Feeble-Mindedness and Criminal Conduct

Lack of agreement among investigators regarding the relationship between feeble-mindedness and criminal conduct is found to be due primarily to a variability in standards for feeble-mindedness and in the estimates of the amount of feeble-mindedness in the non-criminal population. Prominent studies in apparent disagreeement are found to be corroboratory when reinterpreted in terms of relatively constant standards. Criminals are found to be decidedly inferior when compared with the traditional standards of Terman and slightly inferior when compared with the United States Draft Army. The United States Draft Army is shown to be the best available standard for the noncriminal population.