Proactive Violence Research Articles

Comparing Reactive/Proactive Violence between Persons with and without Major Psychiatric Disorders in a Community Correctional Sample: A Pilot Study

ABSTRACT Violent recidivism among people supervised as probationers and/or parolees in the community is a significant concern. Extant research suggests that the best way to examine violence is to delineate violence into two types: reactive and proactive. We recruited and interviewed 98 probationers in a large US east-coast metropolitan area to test the association between offenders with/without psychiatric disorders and reactive/proactive violent recidivism. The sample was equally divided between probationers/parolees with/without psychiatric disorders and the two groups were characteristically comparable at baseline. We collected recidivism data 45-days following the initial interview and used a longitudinal design to examine the association between violent recidivism-type (reactive/proactive violence) and probationer/parolee type (with/without severe psychiatric disorder). Probationers/parolees with a psychiatric disorder who recidivated violently were more likely to engage in reactive violence, whereas those without a psychiatric disorder who recidivated violently were more likely to engage in proactive violence. While people with psychiatric disorders are rarely violent, when they do act violently their violence appears to be more reactive and impulsive. This aligns with prior research about psychiatric symptoms as triggers for violent reactions. Findings may prove useful for correctional staff and treatment-providers who are tasked to manage people with psychiatric disorders in the community.

Ecological Constraints on Violence Avoidance Tactics in the Prehispanic Central Andes

ABSTRACT Prehispanic agricultural populations in the central Andes exhibit some of the highest rates of lethal and sublethal trauma ever recorded. Explanations for high rates of violence focus on what factors drove proactive conflict. While it is true that incentives for proactive violence must exist for high rates of trauma to ensue, it is far less recognized how ecological conditions may promote economic activities that constrain violence avoidance tactics and thus influence rates of violence. Here, we draw on models from behavioral ecology to generate predictions about how violence co-varies with environmental gradients, related subsistence strategies, and attendant defensive tactics. We hypothesize that rates of violence will be highest in marginal and variable environments where high-mobility subsistence strategies serve to reduce subsistence risk while increasing the costs of violence avoidance. Our results show that high elevation locations with variable topography where high mobility subsistence strategies are common exhibit the highest rates of generalized interpersonal violence. These results suggest that as ecological conditions become marginal and variable, risk-reducing subsistence strategies are emphasized, which result in increased exposure to violence. This study shows that environmental influences on the efficacy of violence avoidance tactics are important for explaining variability in rates of violence.

Meir Kahane: The Public Life and Political Thought of an American Jewish Radical

Meir Kahane: The Public Life and Political Thought of an American Jewish Radical

Sensitivity to facial affect in partner-violent men: the role of psychopathic and borderline traits

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the associations among psychopathic and borderline traits, intimate partner violence (IPV) and sensitivity to facial affect. The authors hypothesized that IPV men high in psychopathic traits would exhibit reduced sensitivity to expressions of distress specifically (fear + sadness), while IPV men high in borderline traits would show heightened sensitivity to facial affect more generally.Design/methodology/approachA community sample of 79 IPV men in heterosexual relationships were exposed to slides of facial affect displays while psychophysiological reactions were recorded. Sensitivity to facial affect was operationalized as accuracy in recognizing and skin conductance responses (SCR) while viewing discrete facial expressions.FindingsBorderline personality disorder (BPD) features were positively related to accuracy in labeling fear and surprise while primary psychopathy (Factor 1) was negatively related to accuracy in labeling disgust. Borderline traits were positively associated with SCR while primary psychopathy was negatively associated with SCR while viewing slides of facial affect. Secondary psychopathy (Factor 2) follows the same physiological patterns of BPD traits but the correlates are weaker. Results suggest that IPV men high in traits of primary psychopathy show hypoarousal whereas those high borderline features show hyperarousal to facial emotions.Research limitations/implicationsLimitations include a small sample of heterosexual violent community couples. Women’s IPV was not analyzed. Findings suggest that BPD and primary psychopathy traits are diametrically opposite in SCR, making them powerful comparison groups for psychophysiological studies. Findings challenge Blair’s (1995) model of a specific deficit in processing distress cues for individuals high in psychopathic traits. Rather results suggest that IPV men high in traits of primary psychopathy show more pervasive hypoarousal to facial emotion. The hyperarousal of men high in BPD traits across facial expressions supports Linehan’s (1993) emotional vulnerability model of borderline personality disorder.Practical implicationsDifferences in psychophysiological responding to emotions may be clinically relevant in the motivations for violence perpetration. The hypoarousal associated with primary psychopathy may facilitate the perpetration of proactive violence. The hyperarousal associated with BPD and secondary psychopathy may be fundamental in the perpetration of reactive violence. Treatment matching by IPV perpetrators’ personality traits may improve the efficacy of battering intervention programs. Perpetrators high in borderline personality features may benefit from emotional regulation therapies, such as Dialectical Behavior Therapy. IPV men high in traits of primary psychopathy may benefit from affective empathy and validation training.Social implicationsCurrently, battering intervention programs show little efficacy in reducing intimate partner recidivism. Experimental psychopathology studies such as this one may inform advocates seeking to develop new, tailored treatment packages for partner violence offenders with different personality disorder traits.Originality/valueMany treatment providers assume that men who batter women have deficits in empathy and emotional intelligence. However, this study suggests that rather than global deficits, deficits depend on personality traits. The current study is the first to assess psychophysiological reactivity in response to facial affect displays among IPV perpetrators. Examining SCR responding to photos of facial affect may be used in future studies of affect sensitivity.

The Brain Resting-State Functional Connectivity Underlying Violence Proneness: Is It a Reliable Marker for Neurocriminology? A Systematic Review.

Introduction: There is growing scientific interest in understanding the biological mechanisms affecting and/or underlying violent behaviors in order to develop effective treatment and prevention programs. In recent years, neuroscientific research has tried to demonstrate whether the intrinsic activity within the brain at rest in the absence of any external stimulation (resting-state functional connectivity; RSFC) could be employed as a reliable marker for several cognitive abilities and personality traits that are important in behavior regulation, particularly, proneness to violence. Aims: This review aims to highlight the association between the RSFC among specific brain structures and the predisposition to experiencing anger and/or responding to stressful and distressing situations with anger in several populations. Methods: The scientific literature was reviewed following the PRISMA quality criteria for reviews, using the following digital databases: PubMed, PsycINFO, Psicodoc, and Dialnet. Results: The identification of 181 abstracts and retrieval of 34 full texts led to the inclusion of 17 papers. The results described in our study offer a better understanding of the brain networks that might explain the tendency to experience anger. The majority of the studies highlighted that diminished RSFC between the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala might make people prone to reactive violence, but that it is also necessary to contemplate additional cortical (i.e., insula, gyrus [angular, supramarginal, temporal, fusiform, superior, and middle frontal], anterior and posterior cingulated cortex) and subcortical brain structures (i.e., hippocampus, cerebellum, ventral striatum, and nucleus centralis superior) in order to explain a phenomenon as complex as violence. Moreover, we also described the neural pathways that might underlie proactive violence and feelings of revenge, highlighting the RSFC between the OFC, ventral striatal, angular gyrus, mid-occipital cortex, and cerebellum. Conclusions. The results from this synthesis and critical analysis of RSFC findings in several populations offer guidelines for future research and for developing a more accurate model of proneness to violence, in order to create effective treatment and prevention programs.

Parenting Style and Reactive and Proactive Adolescent Violence: Evidence from Spain.

The aim of the present study was to analyze the relationship between the parenting styles—authoritative, indulgent, authoritarian, and neglectful—and reactive and proactive school violence among peers. These analyses were also performed by sex and age groups. The sample consisted of 2399 Spanish adolescents (50.2% male), aged between 12 and 18 years, mean (M) = 14.69, standard deviation (SD) = 1.82. A multivariate analisys of variance (MANOVA, 4 × 2 × 2) was applied, considering parenting style, sex, and age group (12–14 and 15–18 years) as independent variables to analyze the possible effects of interaction. Reactive, proactive, and pure violence were the dependent variables. The results showed the main effects of parenting styles, sex, and age, as well as an interaction between sex, age, and parenting styles. The interpretation of the findings suggested that the authoritarian parenting style was related to greater engagement in proactive and reactive violent behaviors. In relation to the effect of the interaction between sex, age, and parenting styles, it was observed that adolescents from indulgent families, of both sexes and in any of the studied age groups, obtained lower scores in proactive violence. The discussion highlights the importance of affection and warmth for well-adjusted children’s behavior.

Two types of aggression in human evolution

Two major types of aggression, proactive and reactive, are associated with contrasting expression, eliciting factors, neural pathways, development, and function. The distinction is useful for understanding the nature and evolution of human aggression. Compared with many primates, humans have a high propensity for proactive aggression, a trait shared with chimpanzees but not bonobos. By contrast, humans have a low propensity for reactive aggression compared with chimpanzees, and in this respect humans are more bonobo-like. The bimodal classification of human aggression helps solve two important puzzles. First, a long-standing debate about the significance of aggression in human nature is misconceived, because both positions are partly correct. The Hobbes–Huxley position rightly recognizes the high potential for proactive violence, while the Rousseau–Kropotkin position correctly notes the low frequency of reactive aggression. Second, the occurrence of two major types of human aggression solves the execution paradox, concerned with the hypothesized effects of capital punishment on self-domestication in the Pleistocene. The puzzle is that the propensity for aggressive behavior was supposedly reduced as a result of being selected against by capital punishment, but capital punishment is itself an aggressive behavior. Since the aggression used by executioners is proactive, the execution paradox is solved to the extent that the aggressive behavior of which victims were accused was frequently reactive, as has been reported. Both types of killing are important in humans, although proactive killing appears to be typically more frequent in war. The biology of proactive aggression is less well known and merits increased attention.

Ajuste Diádico, Victimización y Perpetración en Mujeres y Hombres Mexicanos

The present study sought to detect the relationship between dyadic adjustment and victimization and perpetration of violence, taking into account sex, number of children and years of relationship. A demographic data form, the Suffered and Exerted Couple Violence Questionnaire, and the Dyadic Adjustment Scale were administered to an incidental non-probability sample of 120 women and 120 men from Monterrey, Mexico. Models were contrasted by path analysis. In both sexes, having fewer children predicted greater dyadic adjustment, and greater dyadic adjustment predicted lower levels of victimization and perpetration. In women, victimization and perpetration were independent, whereas in men they were related, following a recursive model of reactive or proactive violence. In men, but not in women, having more children predicted a higher perpetration level. In men years of relationship were correlated with victimization and perpetration, but did not predict violence, because these correlations were fully mediated by dyadic adjustment. It is concluded that predictors of victimization and perpetration differ between both sexes and that dyadic adjustment mediates the correlations between years of relationship, number of children, and intimate partner violence.

Clarifying the characteristics of youth who have engaged in appetitive violence

Appetitive violence is a form of proactive violence; its purpose is to generate or maintain a positive emotional state and, possibly, to strengthen social bonds. Portrayals of an increasing frequency of youth acts of appetitive violence have contributed to a perception that aggressive delinquents are callous and predatory. However, the characteristics of these youth and the nature of their violent behaviour have not been elucidated. This study compared demographic and psychological characteristics of 143 young violent offenders according to whether or not they had a history of appetitive violence. It was hypothesised that youth with a history of appetitive violence would score higher on a measure of psychopathy and that their violence would be perpetrated within the context of a group assault. Results revealed that acts of appetitive violence were perpetrated exclusively by males and were more likely to occur when co-offenders were present. Psychopathy did not differentiate the youth. These results suggest that appetitive violence perpetrated by young offenders is the product of social factors rather than individual psychopathology.

Association of ADHD with reactive and proactive violent behavior in a forensic population

ADHD is associated with social problems and aggressive behavior. As hyperactive-impulsive traits are core symptoms of ADHD, it has been hypothesized that reactive-impulsive violence is more likely related to ADHD psychopathology than proactive-instrumental violence. One hundred and twenty-seven adult violent offenders participated in the study. Diagnosis of ADHD and ratings of reactive and proactive features of the committed crimes were performed using standardized instruments. According to DSM-IV, 16.5% subjects fulfilled diagnostic criteria for ADHD, 23.6% were diagnosed as ADHD in partial remission, and 59.8% had no ADHD. Univariate analyses revealed higher reactive violence ratings in both ADHD groups when compared to subjects without ADHD, whereas the opposite was found regarding proactive violence ratings. Using multivariate analyses of variance controlled for age, gender and comorbid substance use disorders, childhood ADHD psychopathology and current ADHD significantly increased the risk of reactive violence and decreased the risk of proactive violence. Significant impact of male gender on proactive violence was found. The findings suggest that ADHD is associated with reactive but not proactive violence in aggressive offenders.

Neurobiologische Aspekte reaktiver und proaktiver Gewalt bei antisozialer Persönlichkeitsstörung und „Psychopathie“

Impulsive-reactive violent offenders show increased autonomic activity in response to negative emotional and threatening stimuli. A volume reduction and/or activity decrease of frontal brain structures associated with impulse control and the regulation of fear and anger are likewise found in combination with a fear-related hyperactivity of the amygdala. In addition, impulsive aggression is facilitated by variants of gene polymorphisms influencing the serotonergic system. Conversely, proactive-instrumental violent offender with psychopathy, who are characterized by a lack of empathy and remorse, demonstrate an autonomic hypo-responsivity as well as dysfunctions of the amygdala and of cortical regions related to empathic and social behavior. Developmentally, aggressive children exhibit temperamental differences from early childhood on that are characteristic of a developmental pathway towards either reactive or proactive violence later in life. Exposure to negative environmental factors like ineffective parenting or childhood maltreatment has been related to a heightened risk for developing reactive violence. A developmental trajectory of proactive violence, however, has been related to a mostly genetically determined callous unemotional temperament of the child that disrupts the parental socialization efforts during childhood.

Proactive and Reactive Violence among Intimate Partner Violent Men Diagnosed with Antisocial and Borderline Personality Disorder

Personality disorder features have been an important basis of many batterer typologies (Babcock et al. J Fam Violence 15:391–409, 2000; Holtzworth-Munroe and Stuart Psychol Bull 116:476–497, 1994), most notably Antisocial and Borderline Personality Disorders. Aggression that partner violent men commit has also been found to be heterogeneous, motivated by the need to control (proactive) or enacted out of emotion (reactive). In the present study, men who were physically abusive towards their female partner (N = 124 couples) were administered the SCID-II diagnostic interview for Antisocial (ASPD) and Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). It was hypothesized that partner violent men diagnosed with ASPD would show highest levels of proactive violence whereas men diagnosed with BPD (alone or comorbidly with ASPD) were expected to be reactively violent. Results suggest that violence perpetrated by men with different personality disorders differs in its function. Within the context of intimate relationships, BPD/comorbid men appear to use violence more reactively, while ASPD men tend to use violence both proactively and reactively. Implications for treatment are discussed.

From self-control capabilities and the need to control others to proactive and reactive aggression among adolescents

The purpose of this study was to explore the associations between aspects of control (self-control capability and the need to control others) and forms of aggression (reactive and proactive). Data were derived from a structured questionnaire administered to 660 male and female adolescents with an average age of 14.99 years, from two urban schools in northern Israel. Findings demonstrate a negative association between the need to control others and the capability to control the self. Findings also show that proactive violence is especially associated with high need to control others, whereas reactive violence is linked more closely to low self-control capability. The effects of gender and age on control and aggression factors are also shown. Findings are discussed on both the behavioral and the motivational levels.

School Violence Prevention

School violence has many faces and many casualties. In varying degrees it touches students, parents, educators and communities of every school world wide. At the local level, communities are seen as playing a significant role in violence prevention. Generally, community-based violence prevention approaches involve the assessment of local problems, identification of target issues, selection of a range of interventions, and the encouragement of collaboration among civic groups, the juvenile justice system, local leaders, and young people themselves. These programs are generally judged as successful if they are able to address risk factors effectively for individual youths, strengthen those factors that provide protection and enhance resiliency, provide sufficient support and effective supervision, and increase pro-social attitudes by providing youth with a sense of having an increased stake in their local communities. Although too few educators are aware of its impact, the women's community has been involved in this work for decades. In this paper I discuss the results of interviews with members of the women's community in Atlantic Canada who have developed proactive violence prevention initiatives. I will concentrate on their efforts to bring those programs into the schools and their experiences of the successes and challenges they encounter.

Proactive violence reduction: successful quality assurance

Proactive violence reduction: successful quality assurance

Proactive Violence Reduction: Successful Quality Assurance

Hospital violence, whether a part of general or psychiatric hospitals, is as endemic as opportunistic infections. Within the Veterans Administration Hospital System, more than 12 000 cases of assault have been reported in a 5-year period. 1 Hospital violence affects the quality of patient care, creates risks for patients and staff, and demoralizes staff. In one study of psychiatrists in Maryland, 48 of 115 respondents had been assaulted. 2 In a survey of psychiatry residents in a West Coast training program, 14 of 31 had been assaulted. 3 In the past, hospital violence frequently was met with administrative and staff denial. Several years ago I inquired about the current assault rate at Veterans Administration hospitals and I was asked whether I wanted the figure generated by incident reports (the lower figure) or that generated by workers' compensation claims (the higher figure). The article by Drummond et al 4 in this