Personality patterns predict the risk of antisocial behavior in Spanish-speaking adolescents

INTRODUCTION

There is a renewed interest in incorporating personality variables in criminology theories in order to build models able to integrate personality variables and biological factors with psychosocial and sociocultural factors. The aim of this article is the assessment of personality dimensions that contribute to the prediction of antisocial behavior in adolescents.

METHODS

For this purpose, a sample of adolescents from El Salvador, Mexico, and Spain was obtained. The sample consisted of 1035 participants with a mean age of 16.2. There were 450 adolescents from a forensic population (those who committed a crime) and 585 adolescents from the normal population (no crime committed). All of participants answered personality tests about neuroticism, extraversion, psychoticism, sensation seeking, impulsivity, and violence risk.

RESULTS

Principal component analysis of the data identified two independent factors: (i) the disinhibited behavior pattern (PDC), formed by the dimensions of neuroticism, psychoticism, impulsivity and risk of violence; and (ii) the extrovert behavior pattern (PEC), formed by the dimensions of sensation risk and extraversion. Both patterns significantly contributed to the prediction of adolescent antisocial behavior in a logistic regression model which properly classifies a global percentage of 81.9%, 86.8% for non-offense and 72.5% for offense behavior.

CONCLUSIONS

The classification power of regression equations allows making very satisfactory predictions about adolescent offense commission. Educational level has been classified as a protective factor, while age and gender (male) have been classified as risk factors.

[Forensic neuropsychology at the challenge of the relationship between cognition and emotion in psychopathy]

INTRODUCTION

The relationship between frontal lobe damage and criminality is especially complex. The neural substrates of psychopathic behavior seem to involve structural and functional abnormalities in the frontal lobes and the limbic system. AIM. To analyze the repercussions that brain structural and functional abnormalities in psychopathic individuals may have for forensic neuropsychology.

DEVELOPMENT

Consistent evidence indicate that response inhibition problems in psychopathic subjects are linked to structural or functional damage in the frontal cortex. Furthermore, the prefrontal cortex, along with the amygdala and the hippocampus forms the limbic system, which is an important neural substrate of emotion processing; therefore the psychopath's capacity of affective processing could also be impaired. The theoretical frameworks of the somatic marker and mirror neuron hypotheses, along with the empirical study of executive functions may contribute to explain the inability of the psychopathic subjects to feel empathy, which is one of the main inhibitors of violence and antisocial behavior.

CONCLUSIONS

The relationship between frontal lobe dysfunction and antisocial behavior arises an important legal issue. In order to consider some type of minor liability in the case of psychopaths it is suggested to gather further research data about the relationship between frontal lobe dysfunction and the ability to inhibit antisocial behavior by making an adequate use of empathy and emotional ties.

[Guidelines for the scientific and professional development of forensic neuropsychology]

AIMS

The principal aims of this review are: (a) to offer a perspective of the principal challenges that forensic neuropsychology handles in its scientific and professional development, and the empirical advances that have been developed to deal with these challenges; and (b) analyze the potential effects of these advances on the application of the discipline in the Spanish legal system.

DEVELOPMENT

With the purpose of reaching these challenges, a series of methodological strategies and instruments, along with specific recommendations about the use of currently available procedures and the development of new procedures, have been generated within the context of forensic neuropsychology. In this paper, we will review: the advances carried out in the different issues of interest that currently handles the development of the discipline, including: the estimation of premorbid functioning, the development of base rates and norms for forensic populations, the detection of malingerers, the ecological validity of instruments, and the creation of professional practices; we will analyze the potential application of these advances to the assessment of the Spanish forensic population; and we will study the principal application areas of forensic neuropsychology within the Spanish legal context.

CONCLUSIONS

Forensic neuropsychology is an emergent discipline that is placed in a key moment of its scientific and professional development. This development should be anchored in the application of specific scientific, professional, and academic strategies.