The Risk Screener Violence (RS-V): retrospective prediction of violent and aggressive incidents within the prison setting.

Introduction: Physical and verbal violence toward staff or other detained individuals is a reoccurring problem within correctional facilities. Screening for violence risk within the prison setting could provide a valuable first step in the prevention of institutional violence. The brief and compact Risk Screener Violence (RS-V) has shown to be an efficient new method for assessing concerns regarding post-release violent offending for incarcerated persons. This study aimed to find out whether the RS-V is also able to predict future violent and aggressive incidents during imprisonment. Methods: The predictive validity of the RS-V for future violent and aggressive incidents during a follow-up time of 4 months within prison was analyzed, using a file-based design. Violent incidents toward staff and other inmates (physical violence and violent threats), other aggressive incidents (aggression toward objects and verbal disruptive behavior), and both categories combined, were included as outcome measures based on disciplinary reports. Results: The RS-V showed medium to large predictive values for both violent and aggressive behavior during prison stay. In particular, good predictive values of the RS-V were found for violence toward prison staff. Discussion: This study shows that, besides post-release violent recidivism, the RS-V is able to accurately predict future violent and aggressive incidents during prison stay. By correctly differentiating between low concern and high concern individuals, the RS-V aims to contribute to more personalized interventions and risk management and, subsequently, to improved prison safety. Future studies using prospective prison practice data are needed to further support the validity of the RS-V regarding institutional violence.

Unzipping empathy in psychopathy: Empathy and facial affect processing in psychopaths.

Psychopathy is a neurodevelopmental disorder that has a highly deleterious effect upon both individuals and society at large. Psychopaths grossly neglect and disrespect the interests of others. Their antisocial behavior is thought to originate from a lack of empathy. However, empathy is multidimensional in nature, as evidenced by the considerable heterogeneity in extant theorizing on the subject. Here, we present the "Zipper model of empathy" that reconsiders how both its affective and cognitive components converge in mature empathic behavior. Furthermore, the Zipper model of empathy is expedient for explaining the empathy deficits in psychopathy, insofar as it brings together current theories on the dysfunctional affective components of empathy, violence inhibition, and automatic versus goal-directed attention. According to the literature, the neurobiological underpinnings of these theories are amygdala-centered; however, this article traces this specifically to the basolateral and central amygdala subregions. When viewed together, the cognitive and affective components of empathy are zipped together in a natural fashion in healthy empathic behavior, whereas psychopaths leave the zipper substantially unzipped in pursuit of their purely self-centered goals.

Sniffing submissiveness? Oxytocin administration in severe psychopathy.

Psychopathy is a personality disorder associated with criminal behavior and violent recidivism, and therefore a burden to society. Social dominance is one of the characteristics of psychopathy that might contribute to these problems. Nevertheless, only few studies have objectively measured the relationship between socially dominant behavior and psychopathy. Therefore, the current study assessed performance of 21 forensic PCL-R confirmed psychopathic patients and 24 normal controls on a gaze aversion task, in which slower gaze aversion from masked angry faces compared to masked happy faces is a measure of reactive dominance. Moreover, the current study assessed the potential beneficial effects of the neuropeptide oxytocin. The results showed that psychopaths were not more dominant on the gaze aversion task compared to normal controls. However, the severity of psychopathy was positively correlated with reactive dominance. Crucially, a single nasal spray administration of oxytocin abolished the connection between psychopathy and reactive dominance. This implies that socially dominant psychopaths might benefit from oxytocin administration.

Affective traits of psychopathy are linked to white-matter abnormalities in impulsive male offenders.

OBJECTIVE: Psychopathy is a personality disorder typified by lack of empathy and impulsive antisocial behavior. Psychopathic traits may partly relate to disrupted connections between brain regions. The aim of the present study was to link abnormalities in microstructural integrity of white-matter tracts to the severity of different psychopathic traits in 15 male offenders with impulse control problems and 10 without impulse control problems. METHOD: Psychopathic traits were assessed using the Psychopathy Checklist-revised (PCL-R). Diffusion-weighted MRI was used to examine white-matter tracts. Fractional anisotropy (FA), an index of white-matter integrity, was calculated for each voxel. Clusters of voxels showing a significant relationship with psychopathy severity were submitted to probabilistic tractography. RESULTS: No significant correlations between psychopathy severity and FA were present in the whole group of impulsive and nonimpulsive offenders. In impulsive offenders, interpersonal-affective traits (PCL-R Factor 1) were negatively correlated with FA in the anterior and posterior temporal lobe and orbitofrontal area. Further analyses indicated that elevated affective traits (PCL-R Facet 2) were specifically related to reduced FA in the right temporal lobe. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that white-matter abnormalities in temporal and frontotemporal tracts may be linked to the interpersonal-affective deficits of psychopathy in offenders with relatively severe impulse control problems. Our study offers novel insights into the relationships between the four facets of psychopathy and disrupted structural connectivity, and may provide new leads for further characterization of different subtypes of antisocial populations. (PsycINFO Database Record