“Would You Allow Your Wife to Dress in a Miniskirt to the Party”?

Abstract

Moral convictions consist of assessments based on perceptions of morality and immorality, of right and wrong. There are people who, based on morality, commit crimes. For instance, social and moral norms based on inequality appear to play an important role in the batterer’s behavior to commit violent acts. Research shows that batterers consider themselves to be moral persons, are defenders of their beliefs, and, if necessary, are self-delusional, enjoying a “feeling” of moral worth. The main aim of this work was to uncover the brain mechanisms underlying moral decision making related to intimate partner violence (IPV) against women. We conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study comparing moral decisions related to IPV and general violence (GV) in a sample of convicted Spanish men. The two groups of our sample were recruited from the Center for Social Insertion (CSI; Granada, Spain): batterers (BG, n = 21), people convicted for IPV, and other criminals (OCG, n = 20) convicted of violating other legal norms without violence against people. Greene’s classical dilemmas were used to validate IPV and GV dilemmas. First, our results showed that IPV and GV dilemmas activate the same brain areas as those activated by Greene’s dilemmas, primarily involving the default mode network (DMN), which suggests that IPV and GV dilemmas are both moral dilemmas. Second, our results showed that other criminals activated the DMN during both types of dilemmas. Nevertheless, batterers activated the DMN during the GV dilemmas but not during the IPV ones, suggesting that decisions about their female partners do not entail moral conflict. Thus, these preliminary results showed that batterers do not activate moral areas during IPV dilemmas specifically, but do so during GV dilemmas. These results suggest that intervention programs for batterers should aim to specifically modify the value system held by the abuser toward his female partner and not toward other people.

Psychological Tasks Used in Neuroimaging with Male Perpetrators of Intimate Partner Violence against Women: A Systematic Review

“…Similar results were found in the study of Marín-Morales et al [ 29 ], who did not use observation techniques either, rather giving the subjects a series of dilemmas during the neuroimaging. The test consisted of a total of 40 dilemmas, belonging to five different categories, with three of them belonging to the task of Greene et al [ 30 ]: personal, impersonal, and control dilemmas.…”

Resting-state functional connectivity and socioemotional processes in male perpetrators of intimate partner violence against women

“…www.nature.com/scientificreports/ corresponding biomarkers 35 . Over the last decade, research in male perpetrators has been exploring these processes as mediators 9,[36][37][38] in IPVAW 39,40 . Although the correlations do not remain significant after correction for www.nature.com/scientificreports/ multiple comparisons, these results are intended to support a novel research interest on social cognition in male perpetrators in order to promote further research and future replications (see Supplementary File 4).…”

“…To date, there are no previous studies exploring the rsFC in male perpetrators and given the novelty of this line of research, we did not make a priori hypotheses about the specific connections that would be implicated nor about the directionality of effects, however, based on the resting-state literature in violent populations 21,22 and the studies of brain activation in male perpetrators 9,17,19 , we hypothesized that male perpetrators would present a different resting-state functional connectivity in comparison to non-offenders and other offenders, between prefrontal areas (reflective system) and amygdala-striatal and insular areas (impulsive and interoceptive system). As an exploratory hypothesis, we hypothesized that specific functional connectivity in male perpetrators would be associated with executive functions and socioemotional processes.…”

Brain Injury and Mental Health Among the Victims of Intimate Partner Violence: A Case-Series Exploratory Study

“…Research has investigated perpetrators of IPV, using MRI to identify changes in brain activity and structure that may influence the propensity for committing IPV, including evidence that reduced DMN activation suggests perpetrators do not view IPV-related decisions towards their partners as a moral conflict ( Marín-Morales et al, 2020 ), a higher ratio of dorsal/ventral medial prefrontal cortex reactivity gradient is indicative of increased aggression in IPV perpetration ( Chester and DeWall, 2019 ), perpetrators exhibit differential activation of the cingulate and prefrontal cortices in response to IPV imagery ( Bueso-Izquierdo et al, 2016 ), and may have structural deficits in the amygdala ( Zhang et al, 2013 ), with alterations in cortical gray matter thickness among perpetrators of IPV ( Verdejo-Román et al, 2019 ). It is crucial to identify how we can improve the quality of care for existing and future survivors of IPV by increasing awareness and further emphasizing the importance of screening for TBI among at-risk individuals to improve health outcomes.…”