The Neurobiology of Offending Behavior in Adolescence

Fairchild, Graeme; Smaragdi, Areti

doi:10.1002/9781118650868.ch16

Cited by 6 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 123 publications

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“…Similarly, delinquency is an umbrella term for a diverse set of behaviors and it will be important to determine whether some behaviors are particularly well or poorly described by the model in the current study, i.e., involving subgroups with and without a developmental imbalance between sensationseeking and self-regulation. For example, distinctions are often made between aggressive and non-aggressive conduct problems and between reactive and instrumental aggression (Fairchild and Smaragdi 2018). It is possible that more impulsive and emotionally-hot forms of delinquency (e.g., reactive aggression) are better accounted for by the models of the current study (see e.g., Lickley and Sebastian 2018).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

An Evaluation of Dual Systems Theories of Adolescent Delinquency in a Normative Longitudinal Cohort Study of Youth

Murray

Zhu

Mirman

et al. 2021

J Youth Adolescence

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Dual systems theories of adolescent risk-taking propose that the socioemotional and self-regulation systems develop at different rates, resulting in a peak in sensation-seeking in adolescence at a time when self-regulation abilities are not yet fully mature. This “developmental imbalance” between bottom-up drives for reward and top-down control is proposed to create a period of vulnerability for high-risk behaviors such as delinquency, substance use, unprotected sex, and reckless driving. In this study, data from the Swiss longitudinal normative z-proso study (n = 1522, n = 784 male; aged 11, 13, 15, 17, and 20) were used to test whether the presence of a developmental imbalance between sensation-seeking and self-regulation is associated with trajectories of engagement in delinquency across early adolescence to adulthood. Using a latent class growth analysis of sensation-seeking, self-regulation, and delinquency, it was found that a model with 3 classes was optimal in the whole sample and male sub-sample, including one class characterized by a developmental imbalance and corresponding adolescent peak in delinquency. In females, there was no evidence for a class that could be described according to the trajectories hypothesized in dual systems theory. This study’s results support the claim that a developmental imbalance may drive an adolescent increase in delinquency. However, this applies only to a small subgroup of individuals, particularly males.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

An Evaluation of Dual Systems Theories of Adolescent Delinquency in a Normative Longitudinal Cohort Study of Youth

Murray

Zhu

Mirman

et al. 2021

J Youth Adolescence

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“…The fact that two different temporal and frontal regions are involved, rather than being restricted to the frontal cortex, suggests that brain structure features in juvenile offenders may be more widespread than originally thought (Fairchild et al, 2016). With respect to the direction of the effects, cortical thinning in the superior temporal gyrus has usually been found in adolescents, youths, and adults with conduct problems and antisocial behavior (Fairchild & Smaragdi, 2018). However, in support of our finding of a thicker cortex in the superior temporal gyrus, similar measures of the middle temporal gyrus and inferior temporal gyrus have also been found in male adolescents showing increases in the psychopathic tendency from ages 9 to 18 (Yang et al, 2015).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Several studies in youths with conduct problems related to controls reported smaller grey matter volume in the ventromedial, orbitofrontal, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, anterior and posterior cingulate cortex, and temporal cortex regions supporting executive function, motivation, and affect regulation (see metaanalysis by Rogers & De Brito, 2016). A review of cross-sectional studies in adolescents with conduct disorders reported lower cortical thickness in the right superior temporal gyrus, reduced surface area in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), and increased cortical folding in the insula relative to healthy controls (Fairchild & Smaragdi, 2018). However, cortical thinning is not always the tendency, since individual rates of change in psychopathic tendency from ages 9 to 18 have been correlated with thicker cortex measurements in the superior temporal gyrus, middle temporal gyrus, inferior temporal gyrus, parahippocampal gyrus, and posterior cingulate gyrus, particularly in males (Yang et al, 2015).…”

Section: The Present Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Contribution of Brain Cortical Features to the Psychological Risk Profile of Juvenile Offenders

Padrón

Góngora

Moreno

et al. 2022

The European Journal of Psychology Applied to Legal Context

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This study contributes to the neuroscience of offending behavior by addressing two aims: a) to examine differences in the cortical features in a group of male serious juvenile offenders (21 OG), versus controls (28 CG), both ranging from 18 to 21 years old; and b) to determine to what extent the differential cortical features and the risk psychological profile discriminate between the two groups. Method: Besides cortical measures, demographics, executive functioning, childhood trauma, psychopathic traits, psychopathological symptoms, and antisocial and delinquent behavior were assessed. Results: Whole-brain analysis of the cortical mantle identified increased cortical thickness in the cluster comprising the right middle temporal gyrus and a smaller surface area in the lateral orbitofrontal cortex for the OG compared to the CG. The discriminant function correctly classified 100% of cases of the CG and 94.7% of the OG. Right temporal cluster, childhood trauma, callousness and symptoms of interpersonal sensitivity, psychoticism, depression, phobic anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive behavior contributed to the OG. In turn, the lateral orbitofrontal cluster, psychopathic traits of grandiosity, unemotionality, and thrill seeking, and working memory contributed to the CG. Conclusions: The increased right middle temporal gyrus of the OG could be indicative of impaired brain development in social cognition processes since it appeared in combination with the higher risk profile. The reduced orbitofrontal cortex could be indicative of immature brain development in emotional control processes since it appeared in combination with the normative psychological profile in adolescence. Based on these novel findings, areas of potential improvement for research and intervention are suggested.

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“…Taking into account the statistical methods and results extracted from the Sharp (2008) and Ackermann et al, (2019) studies, an alternative hypothesis (H 1 ) is proposed for determining the presence of a difference in score averages ≥3 points among men and women for the direct and indirect measures of cognitive/emotional empathy, and a priori expected standard deviations of ±3 for both genders. Sample size calculation for comparing two means was performed in OpenEpi, (The OpenEpi Project, Georgia USA), pointing out that at least 43 subjects (26 females and 17 males) are required when defining a 97.5% confidence interval with a power of 80%, and assuming an minimum allocation rate by gender of 1.5:1 supported by the higher prevalence of conduct disorder in males (Fairchild & Smaragdi, 2018). A difference-of-two-means hypothesis is proposed because this is the central tendency measure reported by the aforementioned authors; nonetheless, statistical analysis in this paper is conditioned to sampling distribution of the data.…”

Section: Methods Participantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender differences in the association between theory of mind, empathy and conduct disorder: A cross-sectional study

Tobón

Monsalve

Rosa

et al. 2020

Sumapsi

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The purpose of this research was to explore gender differences regarding theory of mind and empathy abilities in a sample of adolescents with conduct disorder (n=46; males=28 and females=18). Empathy (cognitive and emotional dimensions) and theory of mind (reading the mind through the eyes) were tested based on an observational method with a crosssectional design. Statistical analysis included: description of variables according to their type, assessment of quantitative correlations and logistic multivariate modelling for identifying variables that differentiate female from male patients. The results demonstrated significant gender differences in empathy and theory of mind evaluations. Particularly, women showed different scores for cognitive/emotional empathy and in the Reading the Mind through the Eyes test, with a lower number of behavioural symptoms. The results are discussed in light of the current empirical evidence, and some future directions in the study of conduct disorder are suggested.

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The Neurobiology of Offending Behavior in Adolescence

Cited by 6 publications

References 123 publications

An Evaluation of Dual Systems Theories of Adolescent Delinquency in a Normative Longitudinal Cohort Study of Youth

An Evaluation of Dual Systems Theories of Adolescent Delinquency in a Normative Longitudinal Cohort Study of Youth

Contribution of Brain Cortical Features to the Psychological Risk Profile of Juvenile Offenders

Gender differences in the association between theory of mind, empathy and conduct disorder: A cross-sectional study

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