Covariates of the Severity of Aggression in Sexual Crimes: Psychopathy and Borderline Characteristics.

Whereas risk assessment literature on sexual offending has primarily focused on prediction of subsequent sexual crimes, and not the severity of those crimes, the first aim of the present study was to identify variables that predict the amount of damage to victims in sexual crimes compared with those that predict general aggressiveness. The second aim was to ascertain whether adding emotional instability measurements, as in borderline personality disorder (BPD), would add incremental variance to that captured by the facets of the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R). Trained raters assessed on the PCL-R, BPD, and measures of severity of sexual and nonsexual violence 302 adults who had sexually offended. PCL-R's Antisociality and two externalizing BPD factors (one from the standard and one from the alternative criteria) were significant predictors of violence both in sexual and nonsexual crimes. In contrast, deficits in the PCL-R's Affective facet (2) predicted victim damage in sexual contexts only, whereas the Lifestyle Impulsivity facet (3) of the PCL-R predicted violence in nonsexual contexts only. These findings suggest that adding measures of emotional dysregulation to commonly used instruments like the PCL-R, which assesses callousness and antisociality, may be beneficial for predicting violence.

Sex matters: females in proestrus show greater diazepam anxiolysis and brain-derived neurotrophin factor- and parvalbumin-positive neurons than males.

In humans and animal models, sex differences are reported for anxiety-like behavior and response to anxiogenic stimuli. In the current work, we studied anxiety-like behavior and response to the prototypical anti-anxiety drug, diazepam. We used 6th generation outbred lines of adult Long Evans rats with high and low anxiety-like behavior phenotypes to investigate the impact of proestrus on the baseline and diazepam-induced behavior. At three doses of diazepam (0, 0.1, and 1.0 mg/kg, i.p.), we measured anxiogenic responses on the elevated plus maze of adult male and female rats. We assessed parvalbumin and brain-derived neurotrophin protein levels in forebrain and limbic structures implicated in anxiety/stress using immunohistochemistry. At baseline, we saw significant differences between anxiety lines, with high anxiety lines displaying less time on the open arms of the elevated plus maze, and less open arm entries, regardless of sex. During proestrus, high anxiety females showed less anxiety-like behavior at 0.1 mg/kg, while low anxiety females displayed less anxiety-like behavior at 0.1 and 1.0 doses, relative to males. Brain-derived neurotrophin protein was elevated in females in the medial prefrontal cortex and central amygdala, while parvalbumin-immunoreactive cells were greater in males in the medial prefrontal cortex. Parvalbumin-positive cells in high anxiety females were higher in CA2 and dentate gyrus relative to males from the same line. In sum, when tested in proestrus, females showed greater anxiolytic effects of diazepam relative to males, and this correlated with increases in neurotrophin and parvalbumin neuron density in corticolimbic structures.

Identity concealment in transgender adults: A qualitative assessment of minority stress and gender affirmation.

Minority individuals might conceal their identity in social contexts in an effort to avoid stigma and victimization. Unfortunately, identity concealment is thought to impact psychological distress in transgender and gender nonconforming (TGNC) individuals. Thus, through 30 in-depth interviews, we sought to understand if and how identity concealment was experienced by TGNC individuals. Findings indicated that (a) TGNC identity concealment is a source of stress, (b) individuals might conceal their TGNC identity based on social context, (c) concealment of assigned sex and gender history can function to affirm one's true gender identity, and (d) concealment of gender history is a rejection of one's assigned sex. In addition, (a) passing/blending is an important interpersonal and intrapersonal process, (b) the importance of passing/blending can change over time, and (c) not passing/blending may result in worrying about personal safety. The authors discuss how concealment can both inhibit and promote psychological health for TGNC individuals, and they offer clinical applications for health providers. (PsycINFO Database Record

The Relation of Familiarity With Sexual Abusers to Subsequent Developmental Adaptation in Youths Who Have Sexually Offended.

The present study explored the effects of child sexual abuse (CSA) on the adaptation of male juveniles who subsequently sexually offended (JSOs; n = 178; age, M = 16.05 years, SD = 0.27, range = 12-22). It examined multiple levels of interpersonal closeness between the perpetrators of sexual abuse and their JSO victims. JSOs who were sexually abused by older children or adults who cohabitated with them for at least 3 months reported higher levels of emotional dysregulation, callousness/manipulativeness, and sexualization than did both JSOs who were sexually abused by someone they had never lived with and JSOs who reported no experiences of sexual abuse. Implications of these findings are discussed.