Personality, Attitudinal, and Demographic Predictors of Non-consensual Dissemination of Intimate Images.

Non-consensual intimate image dissemination (NCII), or else better known as "revenge pornography" is a form of technology-facilitated sexual violence that can have devastating effects on the victim. This is one of the first studies examining how demographic characteristics (gender, sexual orientation), personality traits (Dark Tetrad), and attitudes (aggrieved entitlement, sexual entitlement, sexual image abuse myth acceptance) predict NCII perpetration and victimization. In a sample of 810 undergraduate students (72.7% female and 23.3% male), 13.7% of the participants had at some point in their life, distributed nude, or sexual pictures of someone else without consent and 28.5% had experienced such victimization. NCII perpetration was predictive of NCII victimization and vice versa. Using binomial logistic regression, we found that women, members of the LGBQ+ community, those scoring higher in sadism, and participants with a history of NCII perpetration were more likely to report that someone had distributed their nude or sexual image without consent. Further, we found that those scoring higher in narcissism and sadism, along with those with a history of NCII victimization were more likely to report they had distributed the nude or sexual image of someone else without consent. Finally, the findings suggest that the relationship between victims and perpetrators is quite a bit more varied than the term "revenge pornography" implies.

Group therapy for adolescent depressive disorder: a comparison of social skills and therapeutic support.

Two forms of short-term group therapy for depressed adolescents are compared. Adolescents were assigned to either a social skills training or therapeutic support group. Treatment outcome was based on self-report and semistructured clinical interviews for depression, measures of self-concept, and cognitive distortions. After treatment, adolescents in the therapeutic support groups showed significantly greater reductions in clinical depression and significant increases in self-concept compared with those in the social skills training group. These group differences were no longer evident at 9-month follow-up, as adolescents in the therapeutic support groups maintained their improvement, and adolescents in the social skills training groups caught up.

Psychopathy and sexual assault: static risk factors, emotional precursors, and rapist subtypes.

This study compared psychopathic and nonpsychopathic rapists on static risk factors and on emotional and motivational precursors. Sixty incarcerated rapists were assessed for psychopathy with the Psychopathy Checklist--Revised (R. D. Hare, 1991), and they were classified according to the Massachusetts Treatment Center: Revised Rapist Typology, Version 3 (R. A. Knight & R. A. Prentky, 1990b). Psychopathy was positively associated with past nonsexual offenses and negatively associated with age onset for criminal offending, number of sexual victims, and the intensity of negative emotions experienced before sexual offending. However, psychopathy was not related to sexual offense history, age of onset for sexual offending, or victim harm. Last, psychopaths were most likely to be classified as opportunistic and pervasively angry rapists. The findings indicate that psychopathy should be considered when developing intervention strategies for rapists.

Performance of criminal psychopaths on selected neuropsychological tests.

Screening batteries of standard neuropsychological tests were administered to 2 different samples (Ns = 90 and 167) of male prison inmates. Scores on the revised Psychopathy Checklist were used to divide inmates in each sample into high, moderate, and low psychopathy groups. There were no group differences in test performance in either of the samples, even when the effects of self-reported psychopathology and substance abuse were taken into account. The overall prevalence of both test-specific and global neuropsychological impairment was low and did not vary significantly across the 3 groups. The results provide no support for traditional brain-damage explanations of psychopathy.

DSM-IV antisocial personality disorder field trial.

The development of the 4th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (American Psychiatric Association, 1994) included 12 field trials to assess proposed revisions. This article provides results from the antisocial personality disorder (APD) field trial that was conducted to obtain data of relevance to the proposals for simplification and for the inclusion of more traditional traits of psychopathy. Provided herein are the results from 4 sites that had sampled from populations of particular relevance to the diagnosis of APD (i.e., prison inmates, psychiatric inpatients, outpatients with substance use disorders, and homeless persons). The results indicated that some items from the 3rd revised Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (American Psychiatric Association, 1987) could be deleted without affecting the diagnosis. The field trial provided mixed support for the proposal to include more traditional traits of psychopathy.

Novaco Anger Scale: reliability and validity within an adult criminal sample.

This study investigated the reliability and validity of the Novaco Anger Scale (NAS; Novaco, 1994) with two groups of correctional offenders, General Admissions and Violent Admissions. Predominantly White male offenders (N = 204), ranging in age from 18 to 69 years, participated in the study. One-month test-retest reliability for the General Admissions group ranged from .78 to .91 using both similar (paper-pencil) and dissimilar (computerized) retesting methods, with lower scores occurring on retest. Significantly lower scores were found for the Violent Admissions group as compared with the General Admissions group. Concurrent validity was examined in the Violent Admissions group using three anger/aggression measures and clinical ratings of eight anger dimensions. Stronger correlations with other similar anger measures than with negative affect indices revealed concurrent and discriminant validity. Implications for clinical use in an offender population are discussed.

Psychopathy and substance use in adolescent male offenders.

Previous research with incarcerated adult male offenders yielded correlations of .28 to .40 between measures of substance abuse and psychopathic characteristics. This comorbidity was replicated in 40 incarcerated adolescent male offenders. Drug and alcohol use was significantly correlated with the behavioral characteristics of psychopathy (r = .48 and .41, respectively).

The contingent negative variation in psychopaths.

There have been persistent claims that the contingent negative variation (CNV) is absent or greatly attenuated in psychopaths. However, these claims are based on a few studies with serious methodological and diagnostic problems. The present study attempted to avoid these problems. The subjects were male prison inmates divided into psychopaths and nonpsychopaths on the basis of scores on the Psychopathy Checklist. CNV was recorded while the subject performed a forewarned reaction time task with a relatively long interval (6 s) between the warning stimulus and the imperative stimulus. Motivation to perform well was ensured by having reaction times to the imperative stimulus determine how much money would be won or lost on a given trial. The early CNV of psychopaths was significantly larger than was that of the nonpsychopaths. There were no group differences in the late CNV or in reaction time. To the extent that the early CNV reflects processing of the warning stimulus and attention to task demands, the results are consistent with the hypothesis that psychopaths are proficient at focusing attention on events that interest them.

Self-image as a predictor of outcome in adolescent major depressive disorder.

We investigated the ability of a measure of self-image, two measures of depression, and demographic characteristics to predict the outcome of depressive symptoms. Subjects were 47 adolescents who were referred to outpatient treatment for depression. Subjects were assessed for depressive symptoms at three time periods. Self-image as measured by the Offer Self-image Questionnaire (OSIQ) was a significant predictor of depressive symptoms at both 3 months and 1 year. That was independent of initial levels of depression. The two most predictive scales from the OSIQ were the emotional tone and mastery of the external world scales. The results are consistent with previous research indicating the importance of self-image in adolescent depression. The implications of these findings for treatment of adolescent depression are discussed.

Short-term group therapy with depressed adolescent outpatients.

A selected review of the literature about short-term therapy and social skills as they may apply to depressed adolescents is presented. Two forms of group therapy are described. These are social skills and a traditional discussion group format. Some of the difficulties in establishing and evaluating a group therapy program are outlined.