Homicidal sex offenders: psychological, phallometric, and diagnostic features

Homicidal sex offenders represent an understudied population in the forensic literature. Forty-eight homicidal sex offenders assessed between 1982 and 1992 were studied in relation to a comparison group of incest offenders. Historical features, commonly used psychological inventories, criminal histories, phallometric assessments, and DSM diagnoses were collected on each group. The homicidal sex offenders, compared with the incest offenders, self-reported that they had more frequently been removed from their homes during childhood and had more violence and forensic psychiatric contact in their histories. On the self-report psychological inventories, the homicidal sex offenders portrayed themselves as functioning significantly better in the areas of sexuality (Derogatis Sexual Functioning Inventory) and aggression/hostility (Buss-Durkee Hostility Inventory). However, on the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R), researchers rated the homiciders significantly more psychopathic than the incest offenders on Factor 1 (personality traits) and Factor 2 (antisocial history). Police records revealed the homicidal subjects also had been charged or convicted of more violent and nonviolent nonsexual offenses. The phallometric assessments indicated that the homicidal sex offenders demonstrated higher levels of response to pedophilic stimuli and were significantly more aroused to stimuli depicting assaultive acts to children, relative to the incest offenders. Despite the homiciders' self-reports of fairly good psychological functioning, DSM-III diagnoses reliably discriminated between the groups. A large number of homicidal sex offenders were diagnosed as suffering from psychosis, antisocial personality disorder, paraphilias, sexual sadism, sexual sadism with pedophilia, and substance abuse. Seventy-five percent of the homicidal sex offenders had three or more diagnoses compared with six percent of the incest offenders. The article addresses the role of "hard" versus "soft" measures in the assessment and treatment of violent sex offenders. In addition, the usefulness of phallometric assessments and the PCL-R and its subscales are considered.     

Hostile attributional biases in severely aggressive adolescents.

128 adolescent boys (aged 14 yrs 2 mo to 19 yrs) from a maximum security prison for juvenile offenders were administered a task to assess hostile attributional biases. As hypothesized, these biases were positively correlated with undersocialized aggressive conduct disorder (as indicated by high scores on standardized scales and by psychiatric diagnoses), with reactive-aggressive behavior, and with the number of interpersonally violent crimes committed. Hostile attributional biases were found not to relate to nonviolent crimes or to socialized aggressive behavior disorder. These findings held even when race and estimates of intelligence and socioeconomic status (SES) were controlled. These findings suggest that within a population of juvenile offenders, attributional biases are implicated specifically in interpersonal reactive aggression that involves anger and not in socialized delinquency. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Studies of violent and nonviolent male parolees: I. Laboratory and psychometric measurements of aggression

Male parolees were recruited into a laboratory study to determine the relationship between their previous aggression history, psychometric measures of aggression, and behavioral measures of aggressive responding using a laboratory methodology: the Point Subtraction Aggression Paradigm. Subjects were assigned to a violent or nonviolent group based upon their criminal history. Subjects participated in sessions in which they were given three response options defined as: (1) nonaggressive responding which earned money, (2) aggressive responding which ostensibly subtracted money from another fictitious person, (This responding was defined as aggressive since it resulted in the ostensible delivery of an aversive stimulus (subtraction of money) to another person), and (3) escape which protected the subject's earnings from subtractions initiated by the other person. Results indicated that the violent subjects emitted significantly more aggressive responses than subjects in the nonviolent group. The number of aggressive responses parolees emitted was significantly correlated with most psychometric measures of aggression. This study provides external validity for our laboratory measurement of human aggressive responding, since aggressive responding was directly related to violent criminal histories.     

Identifying violent offenders using a video measure of interpersonal distance.

73 imprisoned male offenders volunteered to complete a videotaped measure of preferred interpersonal distance (IPD). Prison records were then searched for information leading to the classification of each S as either violent or nonviolent and for data on 17 background variables. A discriminant function analysis (DFA) identified 7 of the variables beginning with current offense and including IPD, as discriminators between violent and nonviolent offenders. Inspection of discriminant scores revealed an optimal criterion score with which 92% of the Ss were correctly identified as either violent or nonviolent. A 2nd DFA, which omitted the variable current offense, showed that IPD was the next best discriminator between violent and nonviolent offenders, and a positive relationship between preferred IPD and violence was clearly demonstrated. Results also support studies that have shown no difference in the shapes of the body-buffer zones of violent and nonviolent offenders, but anticipated differences between the IPD scores of Polynesian and European ethnic groups were not found. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Crime specialization, seriousness progression, and Markov chains.

Sequences of violent and nonviolent offenses by 300 male offenders (mean age 26.47 yrs) were subjected to log-linear analyses of the stabilities and magnitudes of their transition probabilities (TPs). Results show that all patterns resembled a Markov process wherein the TPs were stable. The relative magnitude of these TPs indicated that there was specialization in nonviolent offenses and little tendency toward consistently violent behavior. Seriousness progression from nonviolent to violent misconduct was infrequent; however, there was substantial retrogression from violent to nonviolent offenses. (11 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relation of family functioning to violence among inner-city minority youths.

The relationship between family influences and participation in violent and nonviolent delinquent behavior was examined among a sample of 362 African American and Latino male adolescents living in the inner city. Participants were classified into three groups: (a) nonoffenders, (b) nonviolent offenders, and (c) violent offenders. Families in the violent delinquent group reported poorer discipline, less cohesion, and less involvement than the other two groups. These results were consistent across ethnic groups. However, the factor Beliefs About Family related to violence risk in opposite directions for African American and Latino families. These results highlight the need to look at ethnic group differences when constructing models of risk. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Prediction of violent versus nonviolent recidivism from prior violent and nonviolent criminality.

Analyzed frequencies of prior violent and nonviolent criminal convictions among 198 adult male felony offenders (mean age 27 yrs) in relation to probation outcome defined as success, nonviolent failure, or violent failure. The probation follow-up was conducted after 32 mo. Only the results for prior nonviolent offenses were significant, and although nonviolent failures on probation were nearly 4 times more common than were violent failures, the nonviolent predictor set was equally sensitive to the 2 types of recidivism. The association between prior nonviolent offenses and probation outcome was attenuated by the influence of age. Persistent nonviolent criminality usually reflects a generalized propensity for social deviance and is therefore of some predictive value with heterogeneous groups of offenders. In contrast, because violence is often due to transitory psychological states that emerge in response to atypical circumstances, it is a relatively poor indicator of the likelihood of future similar behavior. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Television violence and children's aggression: Testing the priming, social script, and disinhibition predictions.

The effect of television violence on boys' aggression was investigated with consideration of teacher-rated characteristic aggressiveness, timing of frustration, and violence-related cues as moderators. Boys in Grades 2 and 3 (N?=?396) watched violent or nonviolent TV in groups of 6, and half the groups were later exposed to a cue associated with the violent TV program. They were frustrated either before or after TV viewing. Aggression was measured by naturalistic observation during a game of floor hockey. Groups containing more characteristically high-aggressive boys showed higher aggression following violent TV plus the cue than following violent TV alone, which in turn produced more aggression than did the nonviolent TV condition. There was evidence that both the violent content and the cue may have suppressed aggression among groups composed primarily of boys low in characteristic aggressiveness. Results were interpreted in terms of current information-processing theories of media effects on aggression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Anger as a predictor of aggression among incarcerated adolescents.

This study examined the validity of trait anger as a predictor of aggressive behavior among juvenile offenders. Two standard self-report anger scales were administered to 65 recently incarcerated male adolescents. These youths were followed prospectively for physical and verbal aggression during 3 months of subsequent incarceration. Anger scores were not correlated with participant history of violent offending or staff ratings of anger. However, anger scores from both instruments were predictive of subsequent physical and verbal aggression. For example, the Trait Anger scale successfully classified 66% of juvenile offenders into high and low aggressive groups; receiver operating characteristic analysis obtained an effect size of .72. These results support the predictive validity of self-reported anger in identifying juvenile offenders at risk for institutional aggression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Varying forms of husband sexual aggression: Predictors and subgroup differences.

The relationships between two forms of husband sexual aggression (coercion and threatened/forced sex) and husband physical and psychological aggression were examined among a community sample of 164 couples. A stronger relationship between physical and sexual aggression was obtained than in previous research. Husbands' physical and psychological aggression predicted husbands' sexual coercion, but only physical aggression predicted threatened/forced sex. The more severely physically violent subtypes of the A. Holtzworth-Munroe et al. (2000) typology engaged in the most sexual coercion, and the most violent subtype (generally violent/antisocial) engaged in the most threatened/forced sex. In examining C. M. Monson and J. Langhinrichsen-Rohling's (1998) typology, the existence of a sexually violent-only subtype was documented, physically nonviolent husbands were found to engage in sexual coercion, and sexually and physically violent husbands engaged in the highest level of sexual aggression. The utility of using multiple measures, and both spouses' reports, to assess sexual aggression is emphasized. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

I wish I were a warrior: The role of wishful identification in the effects of violent video games on aggression in adolescent boys.

This study tested the hypothesis that violent video games are especially likely to increase aggression when players identify with violent game characters. Dutch adolescent boys with low education ability (N=112) were randomly assigned to play a realistic or fantasy violent or nonviolent video game. Next, they competed with an ostensible partner on a reaction time task in which the winner could blast the loser with loud noise through headphones (the aggression measure). Participants were told that high noise levels could cause permanent hearing damage. Habitual video game exposure, trait aggressiveness, and sensation seeking were controlled for. As expected, the most aggressive participants were those who played a violent game and wished they were like a violent character in the game. These participants used noise levels loud enough to cause permanent hearing damage to their partners, even though their partners had not provoked them. These results show that identifying with violent video game characters makes players more aggressive. Players were especially likely to identify with violent characters in realistic games and with games they felt immersed in. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Female criminal violence and differential MMPI characteristics.

Used a cross-validational approach to compare MMPI scale elevations and profile patterns produced by 22 female murderers and 40 female nonviolent offenders in 2 geographic regions. Ss did not differ between groups in race distribution, age, education, age at or months served on current offense, total time incarcerated, or intellectual level. Ss also completed the Shipley-Institute of Living Scale for Measuring Intellectual Impairment and the Raven Progressive Matrices. Murderers from both prison sources produced subdued group mean profiles, whereas nonviolent offenders were characterized by elevations on Scale 4. Discriminant function classification was highly dependent on scores on Scales 4, 5, K, and A and correctly identified 82% of violent and 78% of nonviolent offenders. A principal-components analysis yielded 5 components of profile types, but only the component defined by high positive loadings for Scale 4 differentiated between the groups. (5 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The validity and reliability of the Violence Risk Scale: A treatment-friendly violence risk assessment tool.

The development of risk assessment tools that use dynamic variables to predict recidivism and to inform and facilitate violence reduction interventions is the next major challenge in the field of risk assessment and management. This study is the first in a 2-step process to validate the Violence Risk Scale (VRS), a risk assessment tool that integrates violence assessment, prediction, and treatment. Ratings of the 6 static and 20 dynamic VRS variables assess the client's level of risk. Ratings of the dynamic variables identify treatment targets linked to violence, and ratings of the stages of change of the treatment targets assess the client's treatment readiness and change. The VRS scores of 918 male offenders showed good interrater reliability and internal consistency and could predict violent and nonviolent recidivism over both short- and longer term (4.4-year) follow-up. The probability of violent and nonviolent recidivism varied linearly with VRS scores. Dynamic and static variables performed equally well. The results support the contention that the VRS can be used to assess violent risk and to guide violence reduction treatment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Intelligence, personality, and criminal violence: A multivariate analysis.

The L. R. Huesmann et al (1978) Validity (F)?+?Psychopathic Deviate (Pd)?+?Hypomania (Ma) MMPT index of aggression and A. B. Heilbrun's (see record 1979-25100-001) hypothesis regarding the interaction of intelligence and psychopathy in relation to violent behavior were evaluated with 390 adult male offenders, mean age 26.2 yrs. The F?+?Pd?+?Ma composite did not differentiate significantly between inmates who had been classified according to the violent or nonviolent nature of their most recent offenses, although it was positively correlated with Ss' lifetime total number of violent convictions. Nonetheless, this latter correlation was of extremely small magnitude, and the combination of scales F, Pd, and Ma performed no better than Pd alone. Low levels of intellectual functioning were associated with violent crime in all analyses; however, contrary to Heilbrun, the relationship of intelligence and psychopathy to violence was found to be linear and additive rather than interactive, regardless of whether psychopathy was defined as F?+?Pd?+?Ma or as Pd only. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Individual, family, and peer characteristics of adolescent sex offenders and assaultive offenders.

This study examined the individual functioning, family relations, and peer relations of 60 male adolescents who were divided into 4 demographically matched groups (sex offenders, assaultive offenders, nonviolent offenders, and nondelinquent controls). Mothers and adolescents completed self-report inventories and a video-taped interaction task, and teachers completed a rating measure. Results showed that assaultive offenders' family relations were characterized by rigidity and low cohesion and that their peer relations evidenced high levels of aggression. Nevertheless, assaultive offenders and their mothers reported little anxiety or interpersonal discomfort. In contrast, sex offenders and their mothers reported high rates of neurotic symptoms, and the peer relations of sex offenders showed relatively low levels of emotional bonding. Implications for research and emerging theories of delinquency are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Criminal behavior as a function of clinical and actuarial variables in a sexual offender population.

The ability of clinical and actuarial variables to predict criminal behavior was investigated in a sample of 342 sexual offenders that was previously used in a study by Hall and Proctor (1987). Discriminant analyses suggested that a linear combination of actuarial variables was significantly predictive of sexual reoffenses against adults and of nonsexual violent and nonviolent reoffending. However, clinical judgment was not significantly predictive of recidivism, nor were actuarial or clinical variables predictive of sexual reoffending against children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developmental trajectories of childhood disruptive behaviors and adolescent delinquency: A six-site, cross-national study.

This study used data from 6 sites and 3 countries to examine the developmental course of physical aggression in childhood and to analyze its linkage to violent and nonviolent offending outcomes in adolescence. The results indicate that among boys there is continuity in problem behavior from childhood to adolescence and that such continuity is especially acute when early problem behavior takes the form of physical aggression. Chronic physical aggression during the elementary school years specifically increases the risk for continued physical violence as well as other nonviolent forms of delinquency during adolescence. However, this conclusion is reserved primarily for boys, because the results indicate no clear linkage between childhood physical aggression and adolescent offending among female samples despite notable similarities across male and female samples in the developmental course of physical aggression in childhood. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Disentangling the psychology and law of instrumental and reactive subtypes of aggression.

Behavioral scientists have distinguished an instrumental (or proactive) style of aggression from a style that is reactive (or hostile). Whereas instrumental aggression is cold-blooded, deliberate, and goal driven, reactive aggression is characterized by hot blood, impulsivity, and uncontrollable rage. Scholars have pointed to the distinction between murder (committed with malice aforethought) and manslaughter (enacted in the heat of passion in response to provocation) in criminal law as a reflection of the instrumental-reactive aggression dichotomy. Recently, B. J. Bushman and C. A. Anderson (2001) argued that the instrumental-reactive aggression distinction has outlived its usefulness in psychology and pointed to inconsistencies and confusion in criminal law applications as support for their position. But how similar is the legal distinction between murder and manslaughter to the instrumental-reactive aggression dichotomy in psychology? This article compares and contrasts the psychological and legal models and demonstrates that the purposes for distinguishing between instrumental and reactive aggression in psychology and law are undeniably different in meaningful ways. As such, a perceived shift in law away from differentiating murder and manslaughter has no bearing on the usefulness of the instrumental-reactive aggression distinction in psychological science. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Head injury in partner-abusive men.

Research into etiology of marital aggression has focused primarily on psychosocial, political, and cultural factors, to the exclusion of physiological influences. Fifty-three partner abusive men, 45 maritally satisfied, and 32 maritally discordant, nonviolent men were evaluated for past history of head injury, by a physician who was not informed of group membership and aggression history. Logistic regressions confirmed that head injury was a significant predictor of being a batterer. The implications of these findings for both marital aggression and post-head injury rehabilitation are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predicting recidivism with the Personality Assessment Inventory in a sample of sex offenders screened for civil commitment as sexually violent predators.

We examined the ability of scores from the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI; Morey, 1991) to predict postrelease (M = 4.90 years follow-up) arrests in a sample of 1,412 sex offenders. We focused on scores from 4 PAI measures conceptually relevant to offending, including the Antisocial Features (ANT), Aggression (AGG), and Dominance (DOM) scales, as well as the Violence Potential Index (VPI). Scores from several PAI measures demonstrated small- to medium-sized effects in predicting violent nonsexual recidivism, nonviolent recidivism, and sex offender registry violations, with the AGG scale being the strongest (d = 0.50 for violent nonsexual recidivism, d = 0.55 for sex offender registry violations) and most consistent predictor of recidivism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)