Assessing Neuropsychological Impairment Among Sex Offenders and Paraphilics

Langevin, Ron; Curnoe, Suzanne

doi:10.1080/15228930801963960

Cited by 16 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 55 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…None of the foregoing studies used a complete neuropsychological battery of tests or reported history of neurological disorders in samples of sex offenders and paraphilics per se. Conversely, Langevin and Curnoe (2008a) found that 33.5% of 1,169 sexual offenders failed the Halstead-Reitan Neuropsychological Test Battery, which was associated with lower intelligence, learning disorders, and endocrine abnormalities, but no information was reported on psychopathy.…”

Section: Brain Dysfunction In Sex Offendersmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…It is, therefore, necessary to examine a range of measures. Moreover, Hare (2003) and Dolan (1994) have noted the dearth of information on the association of brain pathology and dysfunction with adult psychopathy, but there is a growing literature of case studies and small samples, including brain-imaging studies, which indicates that both psychopaths and sex offenders may suffer from brain abnormalities (Baguley, Cooper, & Felmingham, 2006;Blair, 2007;Blair et al, 2006;Hare, 2003;Langevin & Curnoe, 2008a;Raine & Yang, 2007).…”

Section: Brain Dysfunction In Sex Offendersmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…The controls were seen across the same time periods as the SOP group. More details on subgroup classification of cases are described elsewhere (Langevin & Curnoe, 2008a) and are not reported in the present study.…”

Section: Research Participantsmentioning

confidence: 97%

See 2 more Smart Citations

A Comparison of Psychopathy, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, and Brain Dysfunction Among Sex Offenders

Langevin

Curnoe

2010

Journal of Forensic Psychology Practice

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This study examines the relationship of Hare's psychopathy scores (PCL-R) with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) diagnosis and brain dysfunction measures in a sample of 1,695 adult male sexual, violent, and nonviolent offenders. ADHD and brain dysfunction were significantly more common among psychopaths than non-psychopaths. Psychopaths showed more neurological disorders and early problems with learning disorders. Although psychopathy is characteristically considered to be an untreatable and dangerous condition, its significant association with ADHD and brain dysfunction indicates that there are important treatment paths that should be explored and that early treatment should be an important consideration in prevention of adult criminal behavior.

show abstract

Section: Brain Dysfunction In Sex Offendersmentioning

confidence: 91%

Section: Brain Dysfunction In Sex Offendersmentioning

confidence: 96%

See 1 more Smart Citation

A Comparison of Psychopathy, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, and Brain Dysfunction Among Sex Offenders

Langevin

Curnoe

2010

Journal of Forensic Psychology Practice

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…E-mail: yana.suchy@psych.utah.edu 273 Langevin, & Wortzman, 1990), widespread reduction in white matter volume (Cantor et al,, 2008), and smaller amygdalae (Schütz et al,, 2007), Similarly, reports from PET studies of child molesters indicate reduced cerebral blood fiow in the right temporal lobe (Méndez, Chow, Ringman, Twitchell, & Hinkin, 2000), as well as bilateral hypometabolism in frontal and temporal cortices (Cohen et al, 2002), Abnormal EEG activity (Howard, 2002), as well as altered dominant hemispheric functions and disruption of frontal-interhemispheric relationships have also been reported (Flor-Henry, Lang, Koles, & Frenzel, 1991), In sum, there is compelling evidence that child molestation is associated with structural and functional brain abnormalities. Consistent with neuroanatomic and functional brain abnormalities, child molesters have also been shown to have lower overall IQ (Cantor, Blanchard, Robichaud, & Christensen, 2005;Langevin & Cumoe, 2008) and poorer academic functioning , verbal learning and verbal fluency (Joyal, Black, & Dassylva, 2007), attention (Kafisa & Hennen, 2002), and executive functioning (Eastvold, Suchy, & Strassberg, 2011;Kelly, Richardson, Hunter, & Knapp, 2002;Schiffer & Vonlaufen, 2011;Stone & Thompson, 2001;Veneziano, Veneziano, LeGrand, & Richards, 2004).…”

mentioning

confidence: 94%

Understanding processing speed weaknesses among pedophilic child molesters: Response style vs. Neuropathology.

Suchy

Eastvold

Strassberg

et al. 2014

Journal of Abnormal Psychology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Research shows that pedophilic (PED) child molesters exhibit slower performance speed and greater performance accuracy when compared to nonpedophilic (N-PED) child molesters or other criminal and noncriminal controls. The purpose of the present study was to examine whether these differences reflect a slow/deliberate response style among PEDS (as we have previously hypothesized; Eastvold, Suchy, & Strassberg, 2011; Suchy, Whittaker, Strassberg, & Eastvold, 2009a, 2009b), or a fundamental neuropathological weakness in processing speed. Data came from a larger study examining neurocognition among sex offenders. Processing speed in three different domains (motor speed, visual-perceptual speed, and visual-motor integration) was examined in 20 phallometrically identified PEDs, 20 N-PEDs, and 20 nonsexual offenders, using both clinical (Finger Tapping, Symbol Search, Digit Symbol Coding) and experimental measures (Inspection Time Task [ITT]). The ITT assessed speed of visual-perceptual processing independent of response speed. On clinical measures, PEDs exhibited slower visual perception [F(2, 57) = 5.24, p = .008] and visual-motor integration [F(2, 57) = 5.02, p = .010] than the other groups, with no differences for simple motor speed. On the ITT, PEDs performed less accurately than the other groups [F(2, 57) = 3.95, p = .025], clearly indicating that slow processing speed cannot be explained by a deliberate response style. Group differences persisted after controlling for other potential confounds (age, estimate IQ, working memory, ethnicity, and substance use). PEDs' slower performance is due to a fundamental neurocognitive weakness, rather than a slow/deliberate response style. These results are consistent with Cantor et al.'s (2008) work identifying white matter abnormalities among PEDs and provide further support for a neurodevelopmental etiology of pedophilia.

show abstract

“…This is a result of different studies indicating that this group shows consistently poorer performance on measures that assess this construct when compared with nonsex offenders and control groups from the general population. [13][14][15] Related to previous studies of executive function in domestic batterers, this study aims to minimize the limitations in relation to comparison groups 8-10 by including different control groups of offenders. Specifically, comparisons were made between the performance of persons convicted of domestic violence and a group that is characterized by greater executive impairment, sex offenders, [13][14][15] and a control group of participants from the general population.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neuropsychology of domestic violence: A comparative preliminary study of executive functioning

Becerra-García

2014

Med Sci Law

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In neuropsychological studies of executive functioning in domestic violence offenders, the different investigations conducted have only studied differences within this group or in relation to control groups of non-offenders. To minimize the limitations in relation to comparison groups, the purpose of this study was to compare executive functioning in domestic violence offenders in relation to different groups of offenders (i.e. sexual, violent and non-violent) and a control group of non-offenders, with all groups matched on socio-demographic and clinical characteristics. Executive functioning was tested of all participants with the Trail Making Test (direct and derived scores). Compared with the control group, the domestic violence offenders and sex offenders exhibited the poorest performance on the Trail Making Test part B (time) and on the B-A derived index; whereas, the violent offenders group (i.e. convicted of assault, wounding, homicide etc.) showed a high number of errors in part B. These findings suggest that domestic violence offenders exhibit similar performance on the TMT as sex offenders, where both have poorer cognitive flexibility and executive control. Other violent offenders exhibited different patterns of difficulty on this test (e.g. more impulsivity responses). Executive functioning may be a central psychological process that could help explain the interrelations between domestic and sexual aggression, and could be a relevant construct for common treatment of domestic batterers and sex offenders.

show abstract

Assessing Neuropsychological Impairment Among Sex Offenders and Paraphilics

Cited by 16 publications

References 55 publications

A Comparison of Psychopathy, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, and Brain Dysfunction Among Sex Offenders

A Comparison of Psychopathy, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, and Brain Dysfunction Among Sex Offenders

Understanding processing speed weaknesses among pedophilic child molesters: Response style vs. Neuropathology.

Neuropsychology of domestic violence: A comparative preliminary study of executive functioning

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About