Differences in executive functioning between violent and non-violent offenders

Abstract

Violent offenders show worse response inhibition compared to non-violent offenders, suggesting a more pronounced prefrontal deficit in violent offenders than in non-violent offenders.

Impaired neuropsychological profile in homicide offenders with schizophrenia

“…Results for each of the four conditions were almost similar in both groups. Although previously found in some studies [16][17][18], we did not detect differences in executive functioning in our sample. However, neither Barkataki, Kumari, Das, Hill, Morris, O'Connell et al [17] nor Enticott, Ogloff, Bradshaw and Fitzgerald [18] found differences between violent and non-violent offenders with schizophrenia on measures of inhibition (Stroop-like tasks).…”

“…However, neither Barkataki, Kumari, Das, Hill, Morris, O'Connell et al [17] nor Enticott, Ogloff, Bradshaw and Fitzgerald [18] found differences between violent and non-violent offenders with schizophrenia on measures of inhibition (Stroop-like tasks). Meijers, Harte, Meynen and Cuijpers [16] did find such differences, but they did not investigate participants with schizophrenia. As suggested by Enticott, Ogloff, Bradshaw and Fitzgerald [18], these results could indicate that cognitive inhibition may be differently related to impulsivity in schizophrenia and non-schizophrenia populations.…”

“…While some studies find a more pronounced generalized deficit in violent than in nonviolent schizophrenia, others have focused on specific cognitive domains. A few studies [16][17][18], but not all [14], have found that poor executive function is associated with increased violence risk. Another study by Corbett, Karyadi, Kinney, Nitch, Bayan and Williams [19] found reduced verbal learning abilities among forensic inpatients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders, with scores about 1.5 standard deviations below the normative mean.…”

“…While Stratton, Brook and Hanlon [12] focused solely on homicide, Brugman, Lobbestael, von Borries, Bulten, Cima, Schuhmann et al [11] investigated verbal and physical violence collapsed. Second, we cannot draw inferences about violence risk in schizophrenia from studies of criminal offenders without mental illness [10,16]. Third, cognitive deficit as a risk factor for violence in schizophrenia has often been investigated with few tests [11,19], although there are exceptions [13,15,17,20].…”

Personality and Cognitive Functions in Violent Offenders – Implications of Character Maturity?

“…The IQ-delinquency relation was robust and independent of race, social class, motivation, and impulsivity. Antisocial adults have been found to exhibit broad and pervasive impairments in various executive functions (Hancock et al, 2010), including attentional set-shifting (Bergvall et al, 2001), response inhibition (Meijers et al, 2017), and planning and visual memory (Dolan and Park, 2002); the relation between antisocial behaviors and executive deficits has been found to be robust and statistically significant in meta-analyses (Ogilvie et al, 2011) with medium to large effect sizes (Morgan and Lilienfeld, 2000).…”