Intelligence and criminal behavior in a total birth cohort: An examination of functional form, dimensions of intelligence, and the nature of offending

Schwartz, Joseph A.; Savolainen, Jukka; Aaltonen, Mikko; Merikukka, Marko; Paananen, Reija; Gissler, Mika

doi:10.1016/j.intell.2015.06.001

Cited by 50 publications

(45 citation statements)

References 57 publications

(79 reference statements)

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“…The interpersonal and affective (Factor 1) aspects of psychopathy were statistically unrelated to intelligence (FSIQ, VIQ, & PIQ), but the antisocial and impulsive Factor 2 was associated with lower scores on FSIQ and both of its facets. These findings suggest that lower intelligence is particularly associated with the behavioral problems observed in those who score higher on measures of psychopathy or are diagnosed with antisocial disorders, and is in line with findings suggesting that intelligence is negatively related to criminal offending (Schwartz et al, 2015), aggression (Kennedy, Burnett, & Edmonds, 2011), and impulsivity (Lynam, Moffitt, & Stouthamer-Loeber, 1993;Meldrum et al, 2017).…”

Section: Intelligence and Psychopathysupporting

confidence: 72%

Untangling intelligence, psychopathy, antisocial personality disorder, & conduct problems: A meta-analytic review

Ribera

Kavish²,

Katz

et al. 2017

Preprint

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Across the last several decades, a growing body of research has accumulated concerning the relationship between indicators of general intelligence and the personality construct known as psychopathy. Both traits represent key correlates of life outcomes, predicting everything from occupational and economic success, to various indicators of prosocial and antisocial behaviour. The findings to date regarding the association of the two traits, however, have been somewhat inconsistent. Moreover, there has been a tendency to confuse psychopathy with other clinically significant disorders, which also predict antisocial behaviour. Thus, there remains a need for a more systematic investigation of the extant empirical literature.The current study represents a meta-analysis conducted to evaluate the direction and overall effect size between these traits: intelligence, psychopathy, and antisocial or conduct-related disorders. In a pooled sample of 27,094 participants from 105 correlations, our analyses revealed a small, statistically significant, relationship between intelligence and psychopathy (r = -.07, p = .001). Furthermore, we analysed the relationship between intelligence and antisocial disorders, finding a modest, inverse relationship for Antisocial Personality Disorder (r = -.13, p = .001; n = 2,151; k = 14) and Conduct Disorder (r = -.11; n = 23,171; k = 23), but a small, positive association for Oppositional Defiant Disorder (r = .06, p = .001; n = 10,362; k = 3).Keywords: psychopathy; general intelligence; cognitive ability . CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license not peer-reviewed) is the author/funder. It is made available under a The copyright holder for this preprint (which was . http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/100693 doi: bioRxiv preprint first posted online Jan. 17, 2017; 3 Psychopathy and intelligence represent two psychological constructs that have been studied extensively over the last several decades. Large bodies of psychometric work have consistently supported the reliability and validity of both concepts (Carroll, 1993; Hare et al., 1990; Kranzler & Jensen, 1991; Salekin, Rogers, & Sewell, 1996). General intelligence is one of the most studied traits in all of psychology and has nearly a century of research related to its measurement, development, and etiological underpinnings (Gottfredson, 2002; Ritchie, 2015). Psychopathy, while representing a more recently defined psychological construct (Cleckley, 1941), is nonetheless psychometrically robust, and research continues to shed light on its aetiology and development across the life course.Of particular interest to the current study, however, is a more recent line of research examining the association between indicators of intelligence and indicators of psychopathy.The last decade, in fact, has seen a sharp increase in studies examining the association between general intelligence and psychopathy, with some evidence suggesting that lower intelligence scores are correlated with increased psychopathic tendencies (DeLisi, Vaughn, Beaver, & Wrig...

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Section: Intelligence and Psychopathysupporting

confidence: 72%

Untangling intelligence, psychopathy, antisocial personality disorder, & conduct problems: A meta-analytic review

Ribera

Kavish²,

Katz

et al. 2017

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Recent research additionally indicates that the association between education and intelligence might be reciprocal, as a large meta‐analysis of quasi‐experimental studies estimating the causal effect of education on intelligence have shown that each additional year of education was related to an increase of 1–5 IQ points (Ritchie & Tucker‐Drob, ). Evidence from prospective longitudinal studies also shows that high intelligence protects against future violent behavior, violent crimes, and criminal offending in general (Barker et al, ; Schwartz et al, ; Ttofi et al, ). These empirical findings indicate that cognitive abilities may influence both physical fighting and future adult life outcomes and may, therefore, function as a confounder inducing a spurious relationship between adolescent boys’ fighting and adult life outcomes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adolescent boys’ physical fighting and adult life outcomes: Examining the interplay with intelligence

Frøyland

Soest

2019

Aggressive Behavior

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Although it is well known that adolescent delinquent behavior is related to poor outcomes in adulthood, longitudinal research on specific acts of delinquency and their interplay with important individual characteristics in predicting future outcomes is scarce. We aimed to examine how physical fighting-one of the most common acts of violent delinquency among adolescent boys-is related to adult life success in several domains, and how intelligence influences these associations. The study used data from 1,083 boys that participated in the population-based longitudinal Young in Norway Study, following adolescents from 1992 to 2015, by combining self-reports at four time points with comprehensive information from registers. Results showed that adolescent boys' physical fighting was associated with poor adult outcomes in the domains of employment, education, and criminal behavior. Associations remained significant even after controlling for conduct problems in general-which isolated the effects of fighting from other delinquent acts-as well as from a variety of other potential confounders. Detailed analyses on the interplay of physical fighting and intelligence showed that some parts of the associations between adolescent boys' fighting and several adverse adult outcomes could be ascribed to lower intelligence among the fighters. Moreover, intelligence moderated the relationship between physical fighting and adult education. Adolescent fighting was not related to educational attainment among boys with high intelligence, whereas boys with lower intelligence experienced detrimental effects of adolescent fighting. The analyses show the importance of considering adolescent boys' physical fighting as a potential risk factor for future social marginalization.

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“…By denying that low intelligence is a cause, we invite people to attribute poverty to laziness instead. Low intelligence is also a risk factor for crime [32], with "free will" as the most popular, though non-scientific, alternative explanation. The belief that criminals are as intelligent as everyone else strengthens attributions of free will.…”

Section: Concerns About Harms Of Knowledge and The Refutation Of Sommentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The intelligence level of populations can change rapidly in a single generation. Studies showing rising intelligence (Flynn effects) are welcome because they show that, in principle, we can raise intelligence by improving environmental conditions [31,32]. Even knowledge about declining intelligence is not usually considered objectionable although it questions the sustainability of modern societies and raises the specter of a downward spiral terminating in civilizational collapse [66].…”

Section: The Dangers Of Intelligence Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Should Cognitive Differences Research Be Forbidden?

Meisenberg¹

2019

Psych

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Some authors have proposed that research on cognitive differences, including differences between ethnic and racial groups, needs to be prevented because it produces true knowledge that is dangerous and socially undesirable. From a consequentialist perspective, this contribution investigates the usually unstated assumptions about harms and benefits behind these proposals. The conclusion is that intelligence differences provide powerful explanations of many important real-world phenomena, and that denying their causal role requires the promotion of alternative false beliefs. Acting on these false beliefs almost invariably prevents the effective management of societal problems while creating new ones. The proper questions to ask are not about the nature of the research and the results it is expected to produce, but about whether prevailing value systems can turn truthful knowledge about cognitive differences into benign outcomes, whatever the truth may be. These value systems are the proper focus of action. Therefore, the proposal to suppress knowledge about cognitive ability differences must be based on the argument that people in modern societies will apply such knowledge in malicious rather than beneficial ways, either because of universal limitations of human nature or because of specific features of modern societies.

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Intelligence and criminal behavior in a total birth cohort: An examination of functional form, dimensions of intelligence, and the nature of offending

Cited by 50 publications

References 57 publications

Untangling intelligence, psychopathy, antisocial personality disorder, & conduct problems: A meta-analytic review

Untangling intelligence, psychopathy, antisocial personality disorder, & conduct problems: A meta-analytic review

Adolescent boys’ physical fighting and adult life outcomes: Examining the interplay with intelligence

Should Cognitive Differences Research Be Forbidden?

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