Violent Offenders Research Articles

Does Executive Functioning Moderate the Association Between Psychopathic Traits and Antisocial Behavior in Youth?

This study examined the interplay of psychopathic traits, executive functioning, and antisocial behavior among adjudicated youth, with a focus on the potential moderating role of executive function. The current study uses data from the Pathways to Desistance dataset was examined, utilizing the Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version (PCL-YV) and the Stroop Color-Word Task to measure psychopathic traits and executive functioning, respectively. Violent and property offending frequencies were self-reported. Both psychopathic traits and lower executive functioning were initially associated with higher frequencies of both violent and property offending. Crucially, a significant interaction emerged: Youth exhibiting higher socially deviant/lifestyle psychopathic traits and weaker executive function were most likely to engage in property offenses. These findings offer insights into specific risk profiles for offending behaviors and underscore the importance of interventions promoting executive function, especially for youth with these characteristics. This study highlights the complex ways in which individual differences contribute to antisocial outcomes.

The co-constitution of chaos: The entangling of individual and institution in the Australian criminal justice system

Justice-involved individuals convicted of crimes involving violence are often depicted as chaotic, whereas the chaos they encounter in criminal justice institutions is not commonly reported. Nonetheless, we found that chaos can be co-constituted at points where justice-involved individuals and justice institutions intersect. Our findings are drawn from qualitative research on a pharmacotherapy trial designed to reduce violence: Reducing impulsivity in repeat violent offenders using a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor, ReINVEST. Data were analysed using a grounded inductive approach and we drew on Law and Lock and Nguyen's innovative theories of “mess” and “entanglement” respectively. Analysis and theoretical explication revealed themes of entanglement, conflicting justice cultures, unacknowledged dysfunction in justice institutions, and negative impacts of bias. We propose these aspects of the co-constitution of chaos are considered in the creation of person-centered policy, and non-discriminatory, safe criminal justice spaces.

Chronic Offending and Its Relation to Homicide in a Large, Prospective Brazilian Birth Cohort.

Many studies have found that a small group of chronic offenders is responsible for the majority of crimes and tend to be particularly violent. However, there is a major lack of evidence on chronic offending in low- and middle-income countries; understanding these patterns is especially important in settings with very high levels of serious violence, such as Brazil. To identify the extent that crime is concentrated in chronic offenders and linked to violence and homicide in a Brazilian cohort. The 1982 Pelotas Birth Cohort includes 5623 participants followed from birth in 1982 with complete crime records up to age 30. Chronic offenders were defined as individuals who committed five or more offences and, in aggregate,over 50% of all crimes. Key offending characteristics including age of onset, violent and homicide offending, and incarceration rates were compared across three different offender groups (one-timers, below-chronic and chronic offenders). Approximately 27% of participants had a record for at least one crime by age 30, and 5% were chronic offenders. Chronic offenders were responsible for 57% of all crimes, 54% of violent crimes and 68% of homicides. Chronic offenders exhibited more severe patterns of offending on all characteristics examined compared to non-chronic offenders. Homicides committed by chronic offenders were more likely to involve firearms than those by non-chronic offenders. This is the first study to analyse chronic offending within a large prospective cohort in a low- and middle-income country. Chronic offending patterns in this Brazilian setting resemble those in high-income country studies and are highly related to homicides.

The Psychosocial and Contextual Predictors of Revenge Desire and Attitudes in Crime Victims: A Scoping Review.

Criminal victimization is associated with an increased risk of violent offending, which can be motivated by revenge. Experiencing revenge desire could also be harmful for crime victims' mental health. To limit revenge's harmful effects, researchers have examined the predictors of revenge desire and attitudes. However, little is known about the predictors of revenge desire and attitudes in crime victims specifically. This scoping review aims to identify the contextual and psychosocial predictors of revenge desire and attitudes from the existing literature. Databases (PsycInfo, PsycArticles, SCOPUS, Web of Science and MEDLINE) were searched in February 2024. Papers published in English, with data pertaining to the psychosocial and contextual predictors of revenge desire and attitudes in crime victims, were included. Quantitative studies and meta-analyses were included. Qualitative studies and reviews were excluded. Risk of bias was assessed using JBI's critical appraisal tools. 3689 records were screened. 10 reports, covering 14 studies, were included. A narrative review was conducted. Four categories of predictors were identified, namely 1) offence-related predictors, 2) mental health predictors, 3) criminal justice system predictors, and 4) demographic predictors. Significant predictors included PTSD symptoms, which were correlated with higher revenge desire, and participation in restorative justice, which was found to lower crime victims' desire for violent revenge in a series of randomized controlled trials. However, this review highlights the need for further research in this area. Many predictors were merely examined in a single study, so require replication. In addition, studies were largely cross-sectional, limiting conclusions about causation.

From prediction to explanation: Is the relationship between youth psychopathy traits and continued offending in adulthood mediated by social environment?

Studies that focus on whether psychopathy statistically predicts reoffending are not informative of the process that connects the putative cause (psychopathy) to the expected outcome (offending). Understanding the causal mechanisms responsible for the relationship between psychopathy and offending has received minimal empirical attention even though fourth-generation risk assessment protocols and treatment strategies regularly require a specific focus on psychopathy. Theory can help guide an improved understanding of the causal mechanisms underlying the relationship between psychopathy and offending. Cumulative disadvantage theories anticipate that the relationship between psychopathy and reoffending is mediated by a person's social environment. Propensity theories anticipate that psychopathy is a common cause of both a person's negative social environment and reoffending. These two theoretical perspectives were compared using longitudinal data covering the transition from adolescence to adulthood among 490 male and female participants from the Incarcerated Serious and Violent Young Offender Study. Psychopathy was measured in adolescence using the Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version. Social environment was measured in adulthood using an informal social control scale from the Community Risk Needs Assessment. Conviction frequency was measured over a 3-year period after the Community Risk Needs Assessment rating. Bias-corrected bootstrapped confidence intervals indicated that informal social control partially mediated the relationship between Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version scores and conviction frequency. The mediating effect was robust to unobserved confounders. Findings supported the philosophy of risk management and intervention strategies that target a person's social environment when aiming to reduce reoffending for persons with psychopathy traits. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Race, Health, and Recidivism: Examining the Effects of Health Status and Healthcare Needs on Recidivism for Black and White Formerly Incarcerated People

Health research has established that there exist significant and consistent racial disparities in health outcomes, access to healthcare, and scope and quality of healthcare. An unresolved question is whether there are different pathways between health and recidivism for White versus Black individuals who were formerly incarcerated (IFI). Using the Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Initiative (SVORI) data, we find that for both Black and White IFI, mental health is significantly and negatively associated with recidivism, and needing drug or alcohol treatment is significantly and positively associated with recidivism. Further, the effect of mental health on recidivism is partially mediated by unmet healthcare needs, but the mediation effect is more nuanced for Black versus White IFI. The study’s implications are discussed.

Socio Emotional Learning Within Prison Walls: The Effects of GRIP Program (Guiding Rage into Power) as Perceived by Participant and Non Participant Incarcerated Persons

ABSTRACTLong‐term imprisonment often results in negative psychological and behavioural effects that hinder effective reintegration into society, exacerbating antisocial behaviour and increasing recidivism rates. In response to a Supreme Court mandate, California, the state with the second‐largest prison population in the United States, embarked on a significant prison downsizing initiative. Designed to help violent offenders develop emotional intelligence, mindfulness, and understanding of victim impact, Guiding Rage into Power (GRIP) is an example of a rehabilitation program expanding within California's state prison system in part because it has generated promising results. Building on previous investigations of the same program, this study evaluates the effectiveness of GRIP in altering incarcerated men's self‐perceptions and observed behaviours, with a focus on trust and self‐control. Employing a mixed‐methods approach, including a qualitative photo elicitation task and psychological scales, data were collected from GRIP and non‐GRIP participants in two California prisons. GRIP participants demonstrated a profound commitment to self‐awareness and transformation, as evidenced by their narratives and photo choices. Differential levels of trust between the two groups also predicted distinct outcomes in the photo elicitation task. While this study has limitations, it underscores GRIP's potential to challenge entrenched identities and foster positive internal changes, paving the way for future research to assess broader program impacts. Please refer to the Supplementary Material section to find this article's Community and Social Impact Statement.

Beyond Dichotomy: Understanding Violent Offending and Victimization Among Immigrant Youths

ABSTRACT Research has suggested a pattern of lower levels of crime and victimization among first-generation immigrants than subsequent generations. A distinct drawback of most previous research is its focus on the premise of immigrants as either aggressive offenders or submissive victims. Little is known about the co-occurrence of these roles among immigrant groups. Using a longitudinal, national representative sample of school-aged adolescents in the U.S. this study provides an empirical assessment of how generational differences in violent offending and victimization vary when the victim-offender is considered a group separate from victim only and offender only. The findings of this study shed light on our understanding of the often-understudied topic of the victim – offender overlap among immigrant adolescents and can help identify specific targets for anti-violence/victimization intervention and prevention programs.

"The way I see it makes me believe you intentionally did it": Intentionality ascription and gaze transition entropy in violent offenders.

Cognitive processes underlying inferences regarding inferring mental states (i.e. intentionality ascription) are still to be investigated. To assess how people accumulate social cues in order to attribute intentionality, a measure of gaze transition entropy (GTE) seems indicated to throw some light on these processes. Violent behavior is associated with distorted attributional processes but also with deficiencies in attention to socially relevant cues. Therefore, the current study compared the level of entropy between both violent male and female offenders and non-offenders and explore the association between GTE and ascribing intentionality. The sample (N = 128) consisted of violent inmates (N = 63, 31 women) and adults living in the community (N = 65, 31 women). Lower entropy characterized violent offenders to a greater extent as compared to those with no history of volent crimes. Moreover, lower entropy predicted greater intentionality ascription especially in judging ambiguous and hostile harmful events but only in the violent offender group. Findings imply that hostile attributions in violent offenders not only depend on a predisposition to interpret external reality in a hostile manner but can be the result of an inferential processing based on insufficient and incomplete information.

Why We Committed Murder: Views from Convicted Prisoners in Niger State, Nigeria

The killing of a human being by his or her fellow beats rational imagination. It becomes extremely difficult to comprehend the rationale that makes individuals become deliberately responsible for the death of their kind. Murder is a baffling issue that poses a significant threat to humanity and highlights the challenges to civilization and societal development. Its ongoing presence questions the overall health of any society. This paper examines the reasons murderers in prisons provide for their actions, using strain and social disorganization theories as a framework. Semi-structured questionnaires were given to 615 convicted violent offenders in four Niger State prisons, selected through a multi-stage sampling technique. Additionally, sixteen prison warders were interviewed for further insights. The findings indicate that low income (P= .934) was not statistically significant at (P= 0.05) level of significance for the explanation of murder unless redolent with peer pressure (p= 0.02). Special loan packages and partnerships for and between members of the community are suggested to be instituted and encouraged to reduce the pangs of hard economic situations and lack of social capital, which are also potent factors for the explanation of murder.

Examining the Impact of Empathy on the Recidivism of Serious Juvenile Offenders

This study investigated the relationship between empathy and felony recidivism among juvenile offenders, with a focus on sex differences. Utilizing a sample of 4,372 incarcerated juveniles, we analyzed four empathy measures derived from the PACT assessment. Our findings revealed that male violent offenders exhibited higher levels of empathy and responsibility acceptance compared to their female counterparts. Notably, male sex offenders who respected authority demonstrated significantly lower recidivism rates, while female violent offenders who respected others’ property were also less likely to recidivate. No other empathy measures were related to male or female recidivism. These results enhance our understanding of empathy’s role in juvenile recidivism, offering valuable implications for research and practice in the juvenile justice system.

Registered sex offenders’ experiences of home visits in England & Wales: are the police expected to integrate “risk” with “desistance”

Purpose In England and Wales, adult male registered sex offenders (RSOs) are risk assessed and managed using a tool known as the Active Risk Management System; a risk assessment designed specifically for police management of RSOs and carried out by a specialist group of police officers known as Management of Violent or Sexual Offenders (MOSOVO) at the RSO’s home, known as “the home visit”. The purpose of this paper is to explore RSOs views of the home visit and risk assessment and to make recommendations to MOSOVO to improve future home visit & risk assessment practice. Design/methodology/approach This study aimed to examine a sample of adult male RSOs’ views of the risk assessment and home visit process. Three police forces in England and Wales agreed to facilitate the sampling of 10 RSOs who varied in their level of risk, namely, low, medium, high and very high. Findings Three themes were developed from the analysis: anxiety and shame; perceptions of the first home visit; and the property search and observations. This paper discusses these experiences in light of the growing call for MOSOVOs to both manage risk and assist desistance and present recommendations for improving both the home visit and risk assessment practice. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to understand and explore RSOs views of the home visit and risk assessment process.

Causal Interpretations of Correlational Evidence Regarding Violence.

Inferring causation from correlation can lead to erroneous explanations of violent behavior and the development and implementation of ineffective or even harmful interventions and policies. This article explores the inferences that violence researchers draw from evidence related to violent offending. We invited authors of articles published in violence journals to complete an online survey in which they were asked to identify a factor that may be a cause of violence, cite a study that demonstrates the factor is associated with violence, and provide their inferences from that study. We read each study and coded its research design (description of a sample [n = 9], cross-sectional/retrospective non-experiment [n = 18], single-wave longitudinal non-experiment [n = 10], multi-wave longitudinal non-experiment [n = 0], or randomized experiment [n = 5]) and the appropriate inferences (inter-rater reliability was adequate; κ = 0.73-1.00). Reassuringly, participants (N = 42; 57.1% in United States; 59.5% women) rarely indicated that their identified study demonstrated that their factor was a cause of violence (0.0%-16.7%) when the study was not a randomized experiment. However, many participants failed to acknowledge any plausible alternate interpretations (e.g., reverse causality, third variable) of the results from non-experimental studies (50.0%-88.9%). Moreover, most participants incorrectly selected a causal implication as following from the results of non-experimental studies (77.8%-100%). Our results suggest that even among authors of articles published in peer-review scientific journals on violence, many appear to infer causation from correlation.

Are risk assessment tools more accurate than unstructured judgments in predicting violent, any, and sexual offending? A meta-analysis of direct comparison studies.

We conducted a pre-registered meta-analysis of studies that directly compared the predictive validity of risk assessment tools to unstructured judgments of risk for violent, any, or sexual offending. A total of 31 studies, containing 169 effect sizes from 45,673 risk judgments, met inclusion criteria. Based on the results of three-level mixed-effects meta-regression models, the predictive validity of total scores on risk assessment tools was significantly higher than that of unstructured judgments for predictions of violent, any, and sexual offending. Tools continued to outperform unstructured judgments after accounting for risk of bias. This finding was also robust to variations in population, assessment context, and outcome measurement. Although this meta-analysis provides support for the use of risk assessment tools, it also highlights limitations and gaps that future research should address.

Risk factors for violent crime in patients with schizophrenia: a retrospective study.

The relationship between schizophrenia and violence is heterogeneous and complex. The aim of this study was to explore the characteristics and the potential risk factors for violence crime in patients with schizophrenia. We conducted a retrospective case-control study at the Judicial Psychiatric Identification Unit of Xiangya Second Hospital of Central South University from January 1, 2013 to December 31, 2016. The case group included violent offenders diagnosed with schizophrenia, while the control group comprised non-violent individuals with the same diagnosis. There were 308 individuals in the violent group [subdivided into the homicide group (n=155) and the intentional injury group (n=153)] and 139 individuals in the non-violent group. A risk model showed that a history of violence (odds ratio (OR) = 2.88, 95% CI [1.79-4.64]), persecutory delusions (OR = 2.57, 95% CI [1.63-4.06]), regular treatment in the previous four weeks (OR = 0.29, 95% CI [0.16-0.51]) and insight (OR = 0.30, 95% CI [0.14-0.62]) were independently associated with violence. This study provided useful clinical information to identify risk factors for violence and develop better strategic programs to manage violence in patients with schizophrenia.

Psychopathy traits explain variance shared between features of substance use disorders and violence.

There is a substantial research literature on identifying risk and protective factors for violence perpetration. Substance use disorders have long been identified as constituting a significant predictor of violent behaviour. Psychopathy traits have also been similarly recognised, but inter-relationships between psychopathy traits, features of substance use disorders and violence have been little explored. To determine the degree to which shared variance between substance dependence symptoms and violence, as indicated by criminal charges for violent offences, among jailed men can be explained by psychopathy traits. Features of dependence on substances in three drug classes (alcohol, cannabis and cocaine) were assessed in a sample of 682 men in a county jail awaiting trial on criminal charges, many for violent offences. Statistical comparisons of zero-order and partial correlations tested whether accounting for psychopathy total and facet scores, assessed by the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R), affected associations between substance dependence symptoms and violent charges. Total PCL-R scores accounted for a significant proportion of the shared variance between the history of criminal charges for violence offences and lifetime substance dependence symptoms in all three drug classes. At the facet level, controlling for ratings on the interpersonal and modified antisocial facets reduced the association between criminal charges for violent offences and symptoms of cocaine dependence; controlling for ratings on a modified antisocial facetalso attenuated links between alcohol and cannabis dependence symptoms and history of charges for violent offences. These findings build on the sparse literature to date on the role of psychopathy traits on relationships between features of substance use disorders and violence. Given that the observed connection between substance dependence symptoms and charges for violent offences is partly accounted for by individual differences in psychopathy traits, it follows that effective treatment for those traits may be useful, perhaps essential to reducing links between features of some substance use disorders and violent offending.

Perception of emotional facial expressions in aggression and psychopathy.

Altered affective state recognition is assumed to be a root cause of aggressive behavior, a hallmark of psychopathologies such as psychopathy and antisocial personality disorder. However, the two most influential models make markedly different predictions regarding the underlying mechanism. According to the integrated emotion system theory (IES), aggression reflects impaired processing of social distress cues such as fearful faces. In contrast, the hostile attribution bias (HAB) model explains aggression with a bias to interpret ambiguous expressions as angry. In a set of four experiments, we measured processing of fearful and angry facial expressions (compared to neutral and other expressions) in a sample of 65 male imprisoned violent offenders rated using the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R, Hare, R. D. (1991). The psychopathy checklist-revised. Toronto, ON: Multi-Health Systems) and in 60 age-matched control participants. There was no evidence for a fear deficit in violent offenders or for an association of psychopathy or aggression with impaired processing of fearful faces. Similarly, there was no evidence for a perceptual bias for angry faces linked to psychopathy or aggression. However, using highly ambiguous stimuli and requiring explicit labeling of emotions, violent offenders showed a categorization bias for anger and this anger bias correlated with self-reported trait aggression (but not with psychopathy). These results add to a growing literature casting doubt on the notion that fear processing is impaired in aggressive individuals and in psychopathy and provide support for the idea that aggression is related to a hostile attribution bias that emerges from later cognitive, post-perceptual processing stages.

A mixed-methods systematic review of offence-related shame and/or guilt in violent offenders

A mixed-methods systematic review of offence-related shame and/or guilt in violent offenders

Dual Systems Imbalance as a Mediator of the Relationship Between Exposure to Violence and Violent Offending Risk: Delineating Direct Victimization and Witnessed Violence.

Exposure to violence is a robust risk factor associated with violent offending. Furthermore, exposure to violence can lead to dysfunctional cognitive development, and this may underpin the relationship between exposure to violence and violent offending risk. However, there is a dearth of research that has examined the independent effects of direct victimization and witnessed violence in this regard, particularly as it pertains to dual systems imbalance as a cognitive mediator of either or both forms of exposure to violence. This study sought to address this gap in the literature by examining the effects of direct victimization and witnessed violence on violent offending risk and examining dual systems imbalance as a mediator of these relationships. The Pathways to Desistance data were analyzed. Generalized structural equation modeling was used to assess the direct and indirect effects of interest. The results indicated that only experiencing direct victimization was associated with an increased risk of violent offending at follow-up but not witnessed violence. Furthermore, dual systems imbalance significantly mediated the relationship between direct victimization and violent offending risk. The results indicate that justice-involved youth who have experienced direct victimization should be prioritized for intervention in order to reduce violent recidivism risk and that treatment should focus on improving cognitive processes pertaining to impulse control and risk-seeking.

Responses to Killing in State-Sanctioned and Unsanctioned Killers: Pathways of Construing

Examples of responses to killing are provided from three groups of state-sanctioned killers: executioners, perpetrators of genocide, and members of the armed forces; as well as violent offenders. The extent to which such individuals experience guilt and shame is related, from a personal construct theory perspective, to the degree to which their actions are consistent with their core roles as construed by themselves and others. Drawing upon examples from situations of warfare, it is argued that one mechanism for the avoidance of guilt and shame may be hostile extortion of evidence that the individual’s actions are ultimately the responsibility of another, and that cycles of hostility may foment and perpetuate the conflicts concerned. Other such mechanisms that are discussed are reduction of permeability of moral constructs, depersonalization of killing, and dehumanization of victims. By contrast, guilt and shame are likely to be more fully experienced, and possibly to lead to reconstruction, when the individual’s encounter with their victim is one that engenders both commonality and sociality.