Examining the propensity and nature of criminal risk behaviours in frontotemporal dementia syndromes and Alzheimer's disease

INTRODUCTION

Some people with dementia develop changes in behaviour and cognition that may lead to interactions with police or the legal system. However, large, prospective case-control studies examining these behaviours are lacking.

METHODS

One hundred and forty-four people with dementia and 53 controls completed the Misdemeanours and Transgressions Screener.

RESULTS

Criminal risk behaviours were reported in: 65.6% of behavioural-variant frontotemporal dementia, 46.2% of right-lateralised semantic dementia, and 27.0% of Alzheimer's disease patients. In 19.1% of patients these behaviours led to contact with police or authority figures. Compared to controls, people with dementia showed higher rates of physical assault (p = 0.024), financial/professional recklessness (p = 0.009), and inappropriate behaviours (p  = 0.052).

DISCUSSION

Criminal risk behaviours are common across dementia subtypes and may be one of the first clinical signs of frontotemporal dementia. Further research to understand how to balance risk minimisation with an individual's liberties as well as the inappropriate criminalisation of people with dementia is needed.

Highlights

The Misdemeanours and Transgressions Screener is a new tool to assess criminal risk behaviours.Forty-seven percent of patients with dementia show criminal risk behaviour after dementia onset.Behaviours included verbal abuse, traffic violations, physical assault.New onset of criminal risk behaviours >50 years is a clinical sign for frontotemporal dementia.

System circumvention: Dishonest-illegal transgressions are perceived as justified in non-meritocratic societies

Does believing that "effort doesn't pay" in society shape how people view dishonest-illegal transgressions? Across five studies, we show that when people view societal success as non-meritocratic-that is, more dependent on luck and circumstances than on hard work-they are more lenient in their moral judgements of dishonest-illegal transgressions. Perceiving society as non-meritocratic predicted greater justifiability of dishonest-illegal transgressions in the United States (Study 2), and across 42 countries (N = 49,574; Study 1). And inducing participants to view society as non-meritocratic increased justifiability of others' dishonest-illegal transgressions, via greater feelings of sympathy (Studies 3 and 4). Next, we investigated the contours of these effects. Perceiving societal success as non-meritocratic rather than based on hard work causes people to view dishonest-illegal transgressions as more justifiable if they are perpetrated by the poor, but not the rich (Study 4), and if the dishonest-illegal transgressions are related to economic striving, such as money laundering and dealing illegal drugs (Study 5). In sum, when people see a social system as unfair, they show greater tolerance for dishonest-illegal transgressions perpetrated to circumvent the system.

Animal welfare at German abattoirs: insights into the occurrence of violations against laws and regulations from official veterinarians and judicial decisions

Introduction

This study investigated the occurrence of various animal welfare violations at German abattoirs by analyzing the results of an anonymous online survey and relevant German court decisions.

Methods

The survey targeted official veterinarians (OVs) and other individuals responsible for enforcing animal welfare laws and regulations at German abattoirs. Participants were asked to report the five most common animal welfare violations in their workplaces during the past 3 years (2019-2021), and whether 22 specific given violations had occurred or not (in the same timeframe). The court decisions were examined to determine how many abattoirs were penalized for a specific animal welfare violation and the details about the number and species of affected animals.

Results

Overall, the violations examined throughout this study fell into one of the following categories: (1) use of prohibited driving aids (e.g., illicit use of electric prods, or hitting/beating animals); (2) inadequate husbandry in lairage; (3) inappropriate handling of animals with special care needs; (4) improper restraint, stunning, and bleeding of animals; and (5) unqualified task execution/inadequate administrative work (e.g., documentation of a violation). The violations analyzed in the scope of this study most frequently fell into categories 1, 2, and 4. Regarding the five violations that survey participants reported to be the most common in the years 2019-2021, 42.6% of responses (N = 277 reported violations) fell into category 4, followed closely by category 1 with 37.9%. Of the 22 violations surveyed in the second part of the survey, those reported by 50.0% or more participants were concentrated in categories 1, 2, and 4. Regarding the 16 relevant court rulings spanning from 2015 to 2022, the most frequently documented instances of misconduct primarily fell into category 1.

Discussion

The collected data suggest that there may be need for improvements regarding compliance with animal welfare legislation, especially concerning categories 1, 2, and 4. The authors suggest OVs to consider these findings when conducting monitoring activities at abattoirs and in the training and education of abattoir personnel.

Repeatedly Encountered Descriptions of Wrongdoing Seem More True but Less Unethical: Evidence in a Naturalistic Setting

When news about moral transgressions goes viral on social media, the same person may repeatedly encounter identical reports about a wrongdoing. In a longitudinal experiment (N = 607 U.S. adults from Mechanical Turk), we found that these repeated encounters can affect moral judgments. As participants went about their lives, we text-messaged them news headlines describing corporate wrongdoings (e.g., a cosmetics company harming animals). After 15 days, they rated these wrongdoings as less unethical than new wrongdoings. Extending prior laboratory research, these findings reveal that repetition can have a lasting effect on moral judgments in naturalistic settings, that affect plays a key role, and that increasing the number of repetitions generally makes moral judgments more lenient. Repetition also made fictitious descriptions of wrongdoing seem truer, connecting this moral-repetition effect with past work on the illusory-truth effect. The more times we hear about a wrongdoing, the more we may believe it-but the less we may care.

Attentional Control Moderates the Relation between Sympathy and Ethical Guilt

In response to ethical transgressions, some children respond with ethical guilt (e.g., remorse), while others do not. The affective and cognitive precursors of ethical guilt have been widely studied on their own, however, few studies have looked at the interaction of affective (e.g., sympathy) and cognitive (e.g., attention) precursors on ethical guilt. This study examined the effects of children's sympathy, attentional control, and their interaction on 4 and 6-year-old children's ethical guilt. A sample of 118 children (50% girls, 4-year-olds: M_age = 4.58, SD = .24, n = 57; 6-year-old: M_age = 6.52, SD = .33, n = 61) completed an attentional control task and provided self-reports of dispositional sympathy and ethical guilt in response to hypothetical ethical violations. Sympathy and attentional control were not directly associated with ethical guilt. Attentional control, however, moderated the relation between sympathy and ethical guilt, such that sympathy was more strongly related to ethical guilt at increasing levels of attentional control. This interaction did not differ between 4- and 6-year-olds or boys and girls. These findings illustrate an interaction between emotion and cognitive processes and suggest that promoting children's ethical development may require a focus on both attentional control and sympathy.

Moral judgements among neurotypical children, autistic children and adults with intellectual disability

Background: The present study investigates the possible differences between neurotypical children (NT), autistic children, and adults with intellectual disability (ID) related to (i) morality of the agent, (ii) morality of the action, and (iii) culpability in inappropriate situations. Method: Eighty-four Spanish participants (32 NT, 30 autistic children, and 22 adults with ID) responded to a task of moral transgression with an unambiguous structure (bad intention - bad outcome), where the stories were classified as first-order Theory of Mind (ToM) (based on simple desires) and second-order ToM (based on revenge). Results: Autistic group judged similarly to NT group. However, adults with ID had greater difficulty judging the (ii) morality of the action (compared with the autistic and NT group) and (iii) culpability (compared with the NT group). Also, ID adults encountered problems responding the moral questions in the balloon story (second-order ToM) and ice-cream story (first-order ToM). Conclusions: Autistic and NT children were able to make similar moral judgements, however adults with ID did not respond in the same way - as they were more benevolent in their judgements.

Towards Positive Aging: Links between Forgiveness and Health

Forgiveness may serve as an essential positive resource to help individuals cope emotionally with stressful events, ultimately influencing health. Examination of how individuals forgive within the context of close relationships can provide useful information about positive aging. In this study, we examine how the severity of a recent transgression committed by a spouse/partner or other close social relationship is associated with self-reported physical health among older adults. We also examine how state forgiveness (i.e., in context of a specific event) can offset the potentially negative impact of transgressions on health and further compare the impact when the transgressor is a spouse/partner versus another close social relationship. Data are from the Detroit Community Survey, a cross-sectional survey of social relations, forgiveness, humility, and health in the Detroit Metropolitan Area. Respondents age 50 and older were selected for analysis (N=380). Structural equation models indicated that greater transgression severity was associated with worse self-rated health. Further, state forgiveness was found to play a significant moderating role. Among older adults who were more likely to forgive their transgressor, experiencing a more severe transgression was associated with worse health. In contrast, among older adults less likely to forgive, there was no association between transgression severity and self-rated health. Additionally, among older adults less likely to forgive, the transgressor being a close other social relationship was associated with worse health compared to when it was a spouse/partner. In contrast, when more likely to forgive there was no association between who the transgressor was and self-rated health. This study contributes to a better understanding of how interpersonal stress, specifically a recent transgression experienced within the context of close social relationships, can be harmful to older adults’ health. Findings highlight the importance of forgiveness as a resource that can help facilitate positive aging.

Reparative prosocial behaviors alleviate children's guilt

Guilt theoretically functions to motivate reparative behaviors, which, in turn, theoretically alleviate guilt and prevent depression. Although empirical research supports these theories in adults, studies have not investigated causal relations between guilt and reparative behaviors in children. Thus, this study examined whether guilt motivates children's reparative behaviors, and whether their reparative behaviors successfully alleviate guilty feelings. Six-to 10-year olds (N = 97) were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 conditions. Children in the experimental condition were led to believe they had transgressed to cause a peer's distress. Children self-reported their guilt following the transgression, and then had the opportunity to repair the transgression by giving stickers and writing a note to the victimized peer. Following the repair opportunity, children self-reported their guilt a second time. Children in the experimental condition (i.e., children who felt guilty) engaged in greater reparative behavior than children in a no-guilt condition who were led to believe they had caused a peer's slightly positive emotions. Further, children in the experimental condition reported reduced guilt across the first to second guilt measurement, whereas children in the no-repair condition (who transgressed but did not have a repair opportunity) did not report reduced guilt over time. Results demonstrate that guilt and reparative behaviors function as theorized in middle childhood and may begin to inform reparative interventions aimed at preventing maladaptive guilt and depression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

When friends behave badly: Loneliness and children's expectations of friends and responses to transgressions

Previous research has shown that friendships buffer against loneliness, but some children remain lonely despite having best friends. The current study examines relationships between loneliness and Friendship Functions, expectations, and responses to friendship transgressions in children with best friends (8-11 years; N = 177). Children completed questionnaires that measured loneliness, fulfilment of Friendship Functions, Friendship Expectations, and the Transgressions of Friendship Expectations Questionnaire (MacEvoy & Asher, Child Development, 83, 2012, 104). Findings in the current study showed that loneliness was associated with lower Friendship Expectations and higher reliable alliance in existing best friendships. Loneliness was also associated with lower sadness and lower perceptions of feeling controlled and devalued by their friend when they transgress. Thus, children with best friends experiencing high loneliness may be more permissiveness of friendship transgressions and may need support to ensure that they do not allow their friends to be unfair to them. Statement of contribution What is already known on the subject? Friendships buffer children from loneliness, but some remain lonely despite having friends. Loneliness has been associated with poor-quality friendships. But there is no examination of why children remain lonely when they have friends. What the present study adds? Lonely children overemphasize friendship qualities that help to maintain the relationship. Loneliness was linked to expectations of being friends with less popular and well-liked peers. Lonely children placed less blame on their friends when they violated Friendship Expectations.

Mothers' Insistence when Prohibiting Infants from Harming Others in Everyday Interactions

Social interactions about transgressions provide a context for the development of children's moral aversion to harming others. This study investigated mothers' insistence when communicating the prohibition against harming others to infants in everyday home interactions. Mothers' reactions to infants' use of force against others (moral harm transgressions) were compared to their reactions to transgressions pertaining to infant wellbeing (prudential) and transgressions pertaining to inconvenience (pragmatic). Twenty-six infants and their families participated in 2.5-h naturalistic home observations when infants were 14, 19, and 24 months old. Mothers' interventions on moral harm transgressions involved increased use of physical interventions and direct commands, and decreased use of distractions, softening interventions, and relenting/compromising, compared to their interventions on prudential and pragmatic transgressions. Children showed the greatest immediate compliance with, and least protests against, maternal interventions on moral harm transgressions.

Daily Experiences and Relationship Well-Being: The Paradoxical Effects of Relationship Identification

OBJECTIVE

Even couples in healthy romantic relationships experience conflict at times. We examine whether relationship identification (the extent to which the relationship is incorporated into the self) predicts immediate reactivity to partner transgressions and also promotes global resilience over time.

METHOD

Sixty-three couples participated in a 2-week event-contingent diary study.

RESULTS

On a daily basis, experiencing more partner transgressions than usual predicted decreases in relationship well-being and increases in negative affect. This within-person association was stronger for those high in relationship identification. However, after 2 weeks, changes in global relationship evaluations of low identifiers, but not of high identifiers, were contingent on the accumulation of partner transgressions and the degree of negative affect in response to these daily transgressions.

CONCLUSIONS

This study suggests that internalizing a relationship into the self does not blind intimates to immediate negative events but rather provides a basis for their global relationship evaluations that is not contingent on recent events.

The essence of crime: Contagious transmission from those who have committed moral transgressions

Across four studies, we investigated the relationship between moral contagion and disgust. Study 1 established that the contamination effect is unique to transgressions that fall within the moral domain. Study 2 replicated this effect and further showed that the underlying mechanism is intimately related to disgust, as disgust was found to uniquely mediate the relationship between moral transgressions and contamination responses. In Study 3, disgust was again found to mediate this relationship. In addition, the results of Study 3 show that the moral contagion effect was not dependent upon the presence of a core disgust cue within the transgression. In Study 4, we investigated whether or not moral contagion leads to behavioural avoidance. Results show that behavioural avoidance only occurred when the moral transgression contained a core disgust cue. Taken together, the results of our studies show that disgust plays a key role in moral contagion processes. However, the difference in findings between the thought experiments (Studies 1-3) and the behavioural experiment (Study 4) identifies a need for further research to examine the conditions under which moral contagion leads to behavioural avoidance.

Reactance to Transgressors: Why Authorities Deliver Harsher Penalties When the Social Context Elicits Expectations of Leniency

This paper combines experimental and field data to examine how authorities with discretion over how rules are enforced penalize transgressors when the social context of the transgression elicits expectations of leniency. Specifically, we test how transgressors are punished when it is their birthday: a day that triggers expectations of lenient treatment. First, in three scenario studies we explore individuals' intuitions about how they would behave and expect to be treated if they transgressed on their birthdays, as well as how they would imagine penalizing a birthday transgressor. Second, using more than 134,000 arrest records for drunk driving in Washington State, we establish that police officers penalize drivers more harshly when it is their birthday. Then, in a lab experiment in which we grant participants discretion over enforcing the rules of an essay-writing contest, we test psychological reactance toward transgressors who make their birthday salient, even subtly, as the mechanism behind this increased stringency. We rule out several alternative explanations for this effect, including public safety concerns, negative affect and overcompensation for bias. We conclude with a discussion of the theoretical and practical implications of our findings for the literatures on punishment, rule-breaking, and legal transgressions.

Unforgiveness, rumination, and depressive symptoms among older adults

The experience of feeling unforgiven for past transgressions may contribute to depressive symptoms in later life. This article tests a model in which feeling unforgiven by God and by other people have direct effects on depressive symptoms while self-unforgiveness and rumination mediate this relationship. The sample consisted of 965 men and women aged 67 and older who participated in a national probability sample survey, the Religion, Aging, and Health survey. Results from a latent variable model indicate that unforgiveness by others has a significant direct effect on depressive symptoms and an indirect effect via self-unforgiveness and rumination. However, rather than having a direct effect on depressive symptoms, unforgiveness by God operates only indirectly through self-unforgiveness and rumination. Similarly, self-unforgiveness has an indirect effect on depressive symptoms through rumination.