Noncriminal Populations Research Articles

EFFECTS OF FAMILY DYNAMICS ON PSYCHOPATHIC TRAITS AND CRIMINAL TENDENCIES AMONG NON-CRIMINAL PEOPLE

The present study investigates the impact of family dynamics on the development of psychopathic traits in non-criminal populations. Utilizing a sample size of 200 participants, the study employs the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) to quantify psychopathic traits and examine the association with specific family patterns. The results indicate that poor parental supervision, inconsistent discipline, and high family conflict are significantly correlated with higher levels of psychopathic traits. Quantitative analysis reveals that individuals with high scores on the PCL-R are more likely to report negative family dynamics. Qualitative data from interviews and observations support these findings, highlighting the critical role of early family interactions in shaping psychological development. The study underscores the importance of early identification and family-based interventions to mitigate the development of psychopathic traits. These findings contribute to the broader understanding of psychopathy and offer valuable insights for developing targeted preventive strategies.

Frequency of enforcement is more important than the severity of punishment in reducing violation behaviors

External enforcement policies aimed to reduce violations differ on two key components: the probability of inspection and the severity of the punishment. Different lines of research offer different insights regarding the relative importance of each component. In four studies, students and Prolific crowdsourcing participants (Ntotal = 816) repeatedly faced temptations to commit violations under two enforcement policies. Controlling for expected value, we found that a policy combining a high probability of inspection with a low severity of fines (HILS) was more effective than an economically equivalent policy that combined a low probability of inspection with a high severity of fines (LIHS). The advantage of prioritizing inspection frequency over punishment severity (HILS over LIHS) was greater for participants who, in the absence of enforcement, started out with a higher violation rate. Consistent with studies of decisions from experience, frequent enforcement with small fines was more effective than rare severe fines even when we announced the severity of the fine in advance to boost deterrence. In addition, in line with the phenomenon of underweighting of rare events, the effect was stronger when the probability of inspection was rarer (as in most real-life inspection probabilities) and was eliminated under moderate inspection probabilities. We thus recommend that policymakers looking to effectively reduce recurring violations among noncriminal populations should consider increasing inspection rates rather than punishment severity.

The Indirect Effects of Psychopathy on Trait Aggression through Anxiety Sensitivity across Genders

ABSTRACT Prior literature has supported associations between psychopathic personality traits and aggressive behavior among criminal and non-criminal populations. Extant literature is limited in examining affective variables that may account for variance within the association between psychopathic personality and aggression, as well as the role of gender in this association. The current study sought to fill this gap in the literature by examining the indirect effects of triarchic model psychopathic traits on trait physical aggression through the Cognitive Concerns domain of anxiety sensitivity for males and females, respectively, from a community sample. We expected that Cognitive Concerns would have significant indirect effects on the association between the psychopathic traits of Boldness and Disinhibition and trait physical aggression. Further, we expected that these indirect effects would only be detected for males and not females. Results partially supported our hypotheses, with Disinhibition significantly and positively predicting physical aggression for males, and not females, in part because males reported greater Cognitive Concerns. Contrary to our hypotheses, Cognitive Concerns exhibited a suppression effect on the association between Boldness and trait physical aggression. These findings illustrate the importance of examining the psychopathy-aggression link at the subscale level. Additionally, the current study delineates the importance of examining affective variables and gender difference within this association. Further implications and future directions will be discussed.

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.

Self-esteem and aggression in women: differences between female prisoners and women without criminal records

ABSTRACTContradictory findings have been reported regarding the association between self-esteem and aggression. Most studies have dealt with non-criminal populations. This study aimed to explore the relationship between self-esteem and aggression and investigate possible differences in self-esteem and aggression between female inmates and women without criminal records (non-criminals) in the prefecture of Attica, Greece. One hundred fifty-seven female inmates in the Attica’s Korydallos Female Prison and 150 non-criminals from Attica’s general population completed the Buss & Perry Aggression Questionnaire and Rosenberg’s Self-esteem Scale between February 2012 and April 2014. Lower self-esteem was associated with higher aggression among women independent of criminality. Self-esteem was lower in inmates (Mean = 18.06, SD = 6.19) than in non-criminals (Mean = 21.65, SD = 4.90, p < .001). Female prisoners presented higher aggression than non-criminals (unadjusted Mean = 78.40, SD = 23.60 versus Mean = 68.82, SD = 14.95, p < .001). However, after adjusting for age, education and self-esteem, this difference was no longer statistically significant (p = .127). Further studies, especially in female offenders, should be conducted to broaden our understanding of female aggression with a view to developing and promoting focused therapeutic procedures.

Public Support for Emergency Shelter Housing Interventions Concerning Stigmatized Populations

Research SummaryWe examine citizen decision‐making in the context of providing access to safe housing to different noncriminal and criminal populations. More than 4,000 national online survey respondents considered different “emergency housing policy” scenarios that would affect the housing conditions of one of five randomly assigned populations of varying stigma (three noncriminal, two criminal). We find that the criminal populations had the least support for helpful housing policies and the most support for harmful housing policies. Furthermore, compared with a “no cost” policy, average support levels decreased when it increased taxes for the respondent.Policy ImplicationsCitizens seem more willing to subject criminal populations to poor and unsafe housing conditions compared with noncriminal populations. Thus, citizen support may be higher when policies are pitched in ways that do not imply specifically helping ex‐offenders, when they do not involve a personal sacrifice through increased taxes, and when they do not involve “in‐my‐backyard” proposals. For example, a housing policy pitched as aiding the area's homeless (ex‐offenders included) would likely see more support than one that identifies ex‐offenders (and particularly sex offenders) as the population being targeted for help, or that identifies a specific neighborhood as a potential housing facility location.

UNDERSTANDING CONATIVE REGULATION SYSTEMS - AN EXAMINATION OF THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN OFFENDERS AND NON-OFFENDERS

Introduction Numerous studies confirmed personality traits as being important predictors of criminal behavior. The aim of this research was to determine which constellation of basic personality traits incarcerated individuals and those serving alternative sanctions differ, and which traits make the difference between the criminal and the non-criminal populations. In this research, the model of personality used is a cybernetic model of conative functioning, which assumes that conative regulation systems almost completely describe the structure of personality.

Immigration Enforcement and the Redistribution of Political Trust

Social construction theory argues that public policy creates powerful feedback effects and that groups burdened by policy feel alienated. We reevaluate this argument by examining how immigration enforcement policies affect Latino immigrants, native-born Latinos, and Anglos. Using data from a 2012 survey of Texas residents and government statistics on the Secure Communities program, we find that higher removal rates, especially among noncriminal populations, are associated with negative political orientations among native- and foreign-born Latinos. We also extend social construction theory by arguing that the attitudes of individuals outside the target group are affected by enforcement. Our findings show that Anglos living in high-enforcement contexts are the most trusting of government and externally efficacious. We conclude that immigration policy enforcement redistributes trust in government from resource-deprived immigrants to Anglos. Enforcement practices thus perpetuate existing political inequalities.

Further development and construct validation of MMPI-2-RF indices of global psychopathy, fearless-dominance, and impulsive-antisociality in a sample of incarcerated women.

Replicating and extending research by Sellbom et al. (M. Sellbom, Y. S. Ben-Porath, C. J. Patrick, D. B. Wygant, D. M. Gartland, & K. P. Stafford, 2012, Development and Construct Validation of the MMPI-2-RF Measures of Global Psychopathy, Fearless-Dominance, and Impulsive-Antisociality, Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment, 3, 17-38), the current study examined the criterion-related validity of three self-report indices of psychopathy that were derived from scores on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)-2-Restructured Form (MMPI-2-RF; Y. S. Ben-Porath & A. Tellegen, 2008, Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2-Restructured Form: Manual for Administration, Scoring, and Interpretation, Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press). We estimated psychopathy indices by regressing scores from the Psychopathic Personality Inventory (PPI; S. O. Lilienfeld & B. P. Andrews, 1996, Development and Preliminary Validation of a Self-Report Measure of Psychopathic Personality Traits in Noncriminal Populations, Journal of Personality Assessment, 66, 488-524) and its two distinct facets, Fearless-Dominance and Impulsive-Antisociality, onto conceptually selected MMPI-2-RF scales. Data for a newly collected sample of 230 incarcerated women were combined with existing data from Sellbom et al.'s (2012) male correctional and mixed-gender college samples to establish regression equations with optimal generalizability. Correlation and regression analyses were then used to examine associations between the MMPI-2-RF-based estimates of PPI psychopathy and criterion measures (i.e., other well-established measures of psychopathy and conceptually related personality traits), and to evaluate whether gender moderated these associations. The MMPI-2-RF-based psychopathy indices correlated as expected with criterion measures and showed only one significant moderating effect for gender, namely, in the association between psychopathy and narcissism. These results provide further support for the validity of the MMPI-2-RF-based estimates of PPI psychopathy, and encourage their use in research and clinical contexts.

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.

Psychometric Characteristics of the Psychopathic Personality Inventory in a Dutch-Speaking Population

The Psychopathic Personality Inventory (PPI) is a self-report measure developed by Lilienfeld and Andrews (1996). The PPI is based on the personality-based approach of psychopathy and it aims to measure the core personality traits of psychopathy in criminal, clinical, noncriminal, and nonclinical populations. In this study, the Dutch adaptation of the PPI was administered to a nonclinical sample of 314 participants representative of the Flemish general population in Belgium. The factorial structure of the Dutch adaptation of the PPI and its scale characteristics were investigated. Its convergent and divergent validity were examined by exploring correlations both at the total score level and at the subscale score level, with self-report questionnaires measuring aggressiveness, impulsiveness, and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed. [DSM-IV]; American Psychiatric Association, 1994) personality disorders. Associations with 3 demographic variables were inspected as well. Most of the PPI subscales were found to have fairly high internal consistency coefficients. They were also found to refer to different but interrelated aspects of psychopathy. The PPI subscales were found to reflect not just personality traits, but also aspects of behavior. Most PPI subscale scores seemed to be affected by gender and age, but not by educational level.

A typology of St. Louis arrestees surveyed through the arrestee drug abuse monitoring (ADAM) program.

Past research has demonstrated that the characteristics of substance abusers vary considerably. Often, however, addicts are considered members of a single, homogeneous group. These erroneous designations may indeed prevent the successful rehabilitation of substance abusers. In the present study, hierarchical and K-means cluster analyses are used to identify a typology of substance users from a sample of 1,580 St. Louis arrestees surveyed through the Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (ADAM) Program. Five clusters are yielded in the present analysis. The analyses illustrate not only that drug-using classifications differ between criminal and non-criminal populations, but that arrestee populations themselves vary interjurisdictionally. Given these findings, implications for local and regional drug treatment programs are assessed.

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.

Sexual Offending

SummaryBritish law is inconsistent in what behaviours it considers to be criminal and although most of the clients whom forensic services assess have broken one or other sexual laws, there is both a great variation in the characteristics of these offenders and a great undisclosed amount of offending which never comes to the attention of professional services. Forensic psychiatrists are in the main concerned with the treatment of two relatively distinct groups: those individuals in the Special Hospitals and those being treated in the community. The former group are characterized by the sadistic traits of their sexual fantasy life and by a psychiatric and Mental Health Act diagnosis of psychopathic disorder. How abnormal their sexual sadistic fantasies are is not entirely certain, as such types of fantasy can be found in non-criminal populations and other factors may be at work to lead to criminal activity, rather than the sole presence of a sadistic or violent fantasy in itself. Various treatment approaches for both this group and those offenders on probation orders in the community are discussed. Following the publication of the reports of a number of potentially influential Government Committees and advisory bodies, some potential changes to the sexual offences laws are proposed.

The prediction of violent behavior and the duty to protect third parties

AbstractA considerable theoretical, empirical, and clinical literature has accumulated on the prediction of dangerous and violent behavior. Despite the pleas of mental health professionals that the prediction of violent behavior is not clinically feasible, courts upholding a therapist's duty to protect third parties have created a legal duty to do so. The first generation of research studies of the clinical prediction of violent behavior focused on long‐term predictions in offender populations, of little direct relevance to the setting of outpatient therapy with nonoffenders. More recent clinical research has centered on predictions of imminent violence in noncriminal populations, particularly in the process of involuntary hospitalization, but this reveals relatively low levels of predictive accuracy. Methodologic and ethical factors also limit the generalizability of such work. Given the likelihood that significant numbers of false positive predictions will result, especially in the low base rate population of outpatient treatment, it is suggested that therapists attempt to minimize the antitherapeutic influence of any breach of confidentiality.

Normative ethics of two categories of offenders.

Previous research has established that various measures of moral reasoning and axiological orientation are capable of differentiating criminal from noncriminal populations and between probationers convicted of various types of offenses. Traditional personality measures (such as the MMPI), by comparison, do not seem to discriminate so reliably. In the present study a new measure of moral reasoning, the Moral Content Components Test, was explored as a possible aid for the classification of probationers requiring different degrees of supervision. Two scales reliably distinguished probationers requiring regular or intensive supervision. It was concluded that the test has potential as an aid to probationary classification.