ResumoContexto: A relação entre transtorno mental e histórico de abuso sexual é frequentemente observada na prática clínica e relatada na literatura. Objetivo: Descrever os dados demográficos e os aspectos emocionais e comportamentais em crianças e adolescentes vítimas de abuso sexual. Método: 205 crianças e adolescentes com idade entre 6 e 14 anos, sendo 130 meninas (9,6 ± 3,4 anos) e 75 meninos (7,2 ± 2,9 anos) vítimas de abuso sexual passaram por avaliação psicológica e psiquiátrica individual no período de 2005 a 2009. As variáveis estudadas foram: gênero, faixa etária, grau de relação da vítima com o perpetrador, aspectos psicológicos, dados psiquiátricos, aspectos comportamentais e afetivo-emocionais (culpa, vergonha, medo, insegurança, percepção da figura masculina e feminina e de si em relação ao ambiente). Resultados: As meninas são as maiores vítimas (63,4%). A faixa etária de maior risco para as meninas é entre 7 e 10 anos de idade (48,5%), enquanto para os meninos é de 3 a 6 anos (54,6%). Os pais são os maiores perpetradores do abuso sexual (38%), seguidos do padrasto (29%). Meninos e meninas expressaram elevada frequência para depressão e transtorno de estresse pós-traumático (TEPT). As meninas expressam comportamento mais erotizado, enquanto os meninos ficam mais isolados. Conclusão: Este estudo permitiu identificar uma parcela relevante de aspectos psicológicos, psiquiátricos e comportamentais, os quais podem afetar de forma impactante o desenvolvimento emocional de crianças e adolescentes. Serafim AP, et al. / Rev Psiq Clín. 2011;38(4):143-7Palavras-chave: Abuso sexual, transtornos mentais, infância, adolescência. AbstractBackground: There is a well known relationship between sexual abuse in children and mental health disorders, which is seen both in clinical practice as in the scientific literature. Objective: To describe demographic profile as well as behavioral and emotional features of a cohort of children and adolescents sexually abused. Método: 205 children and adolescent, ranging from 6 to 14 years old, 130 girls (age 9.6 ± 3.4 yo) and 75 boys (age 7.2 ± 2.9 yo) were evaluated due to being victims of sexual abuse between the years 2005 and 2009. Gender, age, relationship with the perpetrator, psychological and psychiatric symptoms, behavioral and affective-emotional features (blame, shame, fearfulness, male and female figures image and self perception) were all properly evaluated. Results: Girls were the main victims (63.4%). The riskier age ranging from 7 to 10 yo (48.5%) among then, and from 3 to 6 yo (54.6%) for the boys. Fathers are the major perpetrators (38%) followed by step-fathers (29%). Boys and girls show high risk for depression and Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. Girls tend to be more sexualized whilst boys tend to isolate themselves. Discussion: This research allowed to identify an important set of psychological, psychiatric and behavioral characteristics that affect the normal emotional development of children and adolescents.

Objective: Many psychophysiological studies investigate whether psychopaths present low levels of electrodermal activity (EDA). However, despite evidence that varying degrees of psychopathy are normally distributed in the population, there is a paucity of EDA studies evaluating dimensionally. Moreover, although lack of empathy is a cornerstone of psychopathy, there has been a lack of studies using pictures of empathic emotional content to assess psychophysiological responses.Method: We studied a population of young male delinquents (n = 30) from a detention center, using the Psychopathy Checklist Revised (PCL-R) to determine if higher levels of psychopathy were related to lesser degrees of EDA in response to emotion-eliciting pictures of empathic content.Results: There were significant correlations (p < 0.05) between latency and peak of EDA responses to unpleasant pictures and factor 1 scores, as well as between lability of EDA responses and factor 2 scores.Conclusion: These results extend previous findings indicating direct relationship between EDA and psychopathy, and suggest that separate investigations of the two PCL-R factors have the potential to unravel more complex relationships between EDA and psychopathy. Also, by demonstrating such associations using emotion-provoking stimuli with empathic content, our results provide a link between levels of psychopathy and biological indices of empathic detachment.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the prevalence of mental disorders in convicted sex offenders admitted to the Psychiatric Custody and Treatment Hospital (Forensic Psychiatric Facility). METHOD: 89 patient records of males admitted from March 2005 to August 2006 were analyzed. The analysis included evaluation of two study groups: Group I comprised subjects who had committed sex offenses (sexual offenders) while Group II contained subjects convicted for other crimes (non-sexual offenders). Variables studied were: age bracket, years of schooling, marital status, skin color, place of birth, previous psychiatric admissions and psychiatric diagnosis. RESULTS: Mental retardation and personality disorders were the mainly diagnoses in Group I (sexual offenders) (61,76% and 29,41% respectively). In the other hand, schizophrenic subjects predominated in Group II (non-sexual offenders) (82,93%). CONCLUSION: Different from international data, we have found low prevalence of personality disorders among Brazilian forensic population and we believe that it's due to a distinguishing characteristic of the Brazilian legal system, which does not consider personality disorder a mental disease, thus, not prompting these patients to civil commitment.

Background: According to the literature, juvenile delinquency is a growing problem in many countries, which has increased researches with forensic population seeking for the etiology of antisocial behavior. In this context, neuropsychological evaluation is usually used as an important tool to investigate the correlation between conduct behavior and cognitive deficits. The present research compared executive functions between recidivist juvenile offenders and non-recidivist ones. Methods: 38 young offenders with 18 years old of average (±0,23) were divided in two groups: Group 1: