Toward a neuropsychology of personality in sex offenders against children: an exploratory psychometric study

Little is known about the relationship between neuropsychological functioning and normal personality in sex offenders. The aim of this study was to examine the relations between personality traits and executive functioning in child molesters. The NEO-Five Factor Inventory was used to assess personality, and the Trail Making Test (parts A and B) was used to assess executive functioning in a sample of child molesters (n = 33). We found the time required to complete Trail Making Test part A significantly predicted Extraversion scores, whereas the time to complete Trail Making Test part B significantly predicted Openness scores. Brief measures of executive functioning can thus predict the score in Extraversion and Openness in child molesters. These personality traits may be related to the functioning of brain areas implicated in having to complete the Trail Making Test.

The neuropsychology and neurology of sexual deviance: a review and pilot study

Current neurological hypotheses of paraphilia posit that sexual deviance is associated with frontal and/or temporal lobe damage. This broad conception is based on few investigations, however, and the first goal of this study was to review the existing data derived from neuropsychiatry, neuroimaging and neuropsychology. It is concluded that although fronto-temporal dysfunctions are sporadically reported among sexual offenders, the evidence is scarce and it might not be specific to this type of offending. The second objective of this investigation was to gather preliminary neuropsychological data with more homogeneous subgroups of sexual offenders. A profile of lower-order executive dysfunctions (e.g. sustained attention and inhibition) and verbal deficits with intact or good capacities for higher-order executive functioning (e.g. reasoning and cognitive flexibility) and visuo-spatial processing was preferentially found among sexual offenders, suggesting basal fronto-temporal anomalies. Importantly, pedophiles were more consistently and severely impaired than rapists of adults. However, this basal fronto-temporal profile is not characteristic of sexual deviance, as it is also found in association with delinquency and criminality in general. Future neuropsychological and brain imaging studies should consider subgroups of sexual offenders and recruit non-sexual violent persons and non-violent individuals in order to disentangle the complex relations between brain anomalies and sexual deviance.

Social, neuroradiologic, medical, and neuropsychologic correlates of sexually aberrant behavior after traumatic brain injury: a controlled study

OBJECTIVE

To identify social, neuroradiological, medical, and neuropsychological correlates of sexually aberrant behavior (SAB) after traumatic brain injury (TBI).

DESIGN

A controlled study using a retrospective file review.

SETTING

A brain injury unit providing inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation services.

PARTICIPANTS

A sample of males (n = 25) exhibiting SABs and a control group (n = 25) matched for gender, severity of injury, age at injury, and time after injury.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

A protocol that recorded data on demographic, injury, radiological, medical, and neuropsychological variables.

RESULTS

The SAB group had a significantly higher incidence of postinjury psychosocial disturbance in areas of nonsexual crime and failure to return to work than the matched TBI group. There were no significant differences between the two groups in the incidence of premorbid psychosocial disturbance or postinjury radiological, medical, or neuropsychological variables.

CONCLUSIONS

The study results caution against simplistic explanations of SAB as the product of damage to the frontal-lobe systems or premorbid psychosocial disturbance. Furthermore, the results suggest that a wide-ranging assessment of people with TBI who exhibit SABs is required, because results of neuropsychological examination alone cannot be considered conclusive. Future research into the etiology of SABs could examine additional factors such as lack of insight, lack of empathy, and premorbid history of family dysfunction.

Child sexual abuse. 3: Treatment and recidivism in paedophiles

Although various courses of treatment for paedophilia have been tried, there is little evidence of their effectiveness. Important factors that mitigate against success are the inability of paedophiles to see their sexual activity as warranting treatment and their reluctance to change their behaviour.