Search results

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between resting heart rate (RHR) and psychopathy. The literature on heart rate vs criminality (including violence) is quite clear; low RHR is associated with engaging in violent and criminal behavior. However, results are not as consistent for psychopathy.

This paper analyzes heart rate measured at ages 18 and 48, and psychopathy at age 48, in the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development (CSDD). The CSDD is a prospective longitudinal study that has followed 411 boys from childhood to middle age, and measured social and biological factors of interest to the field of criminal psychology.

Interestingly, it was only heart rate at age 18 that was negatively and significantly related to psychopathy at age 48. No trends or relationships were found between heart rate at age 48 and psychopathy at age 48. The findings do, however, indicate that low heart rate at age 18 predicts psychopathy at age 48, and the strongest negative relationships are found between low heart rate (beats per minute) and impulsive and antisocial psychopathic symptoms.

This is the first ever longitudinal study showing that low RHR predicts later psychopathy. Suggestions for future research are outlined.

Previous research has indicated that low resting heart rate (RHR), measured at age 18, predicts later psychopathy, and that high RHR acts as a protective factor in nullifying the influence of several psychosocial risk factors in predicting later antisocial and criminal outcomes. This paper aims to investigate high RHR as a protective factor against age 8–10 psychosocial risk factors in predicting psychopathy factors at age 48 (measured by the PCL:SV).

Data collected in the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development are analyzed. This is a prospective longitudinal study of 411 London males from age 8 to age 61.

This paper first reports the age 8–10 psychosocial risk factors that predict the interpersonal/affective Factor 1 and the lifestyle/antisocial Factor 2. Then interaction effects with high RHR are studied. The results indicate that high RHR acts as a protective factor against a convicted father and a depressed mother in predicting both psychopathy factors. It also protected against harsh discipline, large family size, low verbal IQ, high hyperactivity, poor parental supervision and a high delinquency-rate school in predicting one of these psychopathy factors, and against a convicted mother in a sensitivity analysis.

This is the first ever longitudinal study showing that high RHR acts as a protective factor in the prediction of psychopathy. The replicated results with different antisocial outcomes show that more research is warranted on the protective effects of high RHR.

This paper aims to advance knowledge about the life course of impulsive males from childhood to adulthood, based on data collected in the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development (CSDD) from age 8 to 65 and to investigate which factors are related to impulsiveness at different ages.

The CSDD is a prospective longitudinal survey of 411 London males first studied in 1961–1962 at age eight. The males have been assessed face-to-face nine times from age 8 to 48. A total of 77 impulsive boys and 334 non-impulsive boys were identified at ages 8–10 using three measures of impulsiveness: daring/risk-taking (rated by parents and peers), psychomotor clumsiness/impulsivity (based on psychomotor tests of the boys) and poor concentration/restless in class (rated by teachers).

Parental, family, socio-economic, academic attainment and behavioural factors in childhood were the most significant variables that were related to impulsiveness at ages 8–10. Impulsive males had low IQ, truancy, high daring and a high antisocial personality score at ages 12–14. No exams passed, and a low socio-economic status job were especially significant at ages 16–18, while poor employment, convictions (especially for violence), anti-establishment attitudes and an unsuccessful life were especially characteristic of impulsive males in adulthood (ages 32–48).

Child skills training programmes are needed to reduce childhood impulsiveness.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first-ever publication that documents the life course of impulsive males from childhood to late adulthood.

This paper aims to present new evidence from the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development (CSDD) showing the extent to which obstetric (e.g. abnormal birth weight, confinement at birth, severe abnormality of pregnancy, etc.) and early childhood and family factors (illegitimate child, unwanted conception, family overcrowding, etc.) have predictive effects on psychopathic traits measured later in life at age 48 years.

Data collected in the CSDD are analysed. This is a prospective longitudinal study of 411 London men from age 8 to age 61 years.

The results suggest that none of the obstetric problems were predictive of adult psychopathy. However, some other early childhood factors were significant. Unwanted conception (by the mother) was significantly associated with high psychopathy. The likelihood of being an unwanted child was higher when the mother was younger (19 years or less), and when the child was illegitimate. The poor health of the mother and living in an overcrowded family were also significant in predicting psychopathy in adulthood, as well as both psychopathic personality (F1) and psychopathic behaviour (F2).

These findings suggest the influence of very early emotional tensions and problematic social background in predicting psychopathic traits in adulthood (at age 48 years). They also emphasise the importance of investigating further the very early roots of psychopathic traits.

The purpose of this study is to compare self-reported antisocial (SRA) behaviour of 10-year-old boys in China (in Zhuhai) and the USA (in Pittsburgh).

In Pittsburgh, 868 boys were given a SRA behaviour questionnaire in 1987–1988. In Zhuhai, 1,154 boys were given the same questionnaire in 2017.

The prevalence of 23 acts in the two countries was significantly correlated (r = 0.69), showing that the acts that were admitted by most boys in one country also tended to be admitted by most boys in the other country. Also, the mean prevalence in the two countries was very similar, at about 13%. However, several acts (e.g. stealing) were more prevalent in Zhuhai, while violent acts were more prevalent in Pittsburgh. The frequencies of the acts in the two countries were also significantly correlated (r = 0.51), although frequency was usually greater in Pittsburgh.

While most theories and research in criminology and psychology are based on Western industrialised countries, it is important to carry out more cross-cultural comparisons of antisocial behaviour in other countries. These results show encouraging generalizability and replicability, despite differences in time and place.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study presents the first comparison of age-matched Chinese and American children on the prevalence and frequency of specific antisocial acts.

This paper aims to explore the sexuality of individuals with psychopathic traits. Sexuality is not only a physiological need but also a way by which people connect to others. According to a Darwinian perspective, psychopathic traits are seen as adaptive responses to environmental conditions, and as a nonpathological and reproductively viable life history strategy, although superficial emotionality and a detached interpersonal style characterise individuals who are high on psychopathic traits.

Data from the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development are analysed. This is a prospective longitudinal study of 411 London males, with face-to-face interviews from 8 to 48 years of age.

Men who are high on psychopathic traits were likely to drift from one relationship to another, without a particular attachment to any of them, and to be sexually promiscuous. They never used contraception, which increased their likelihood of having several children from different partners.

Findings provide an insight into the non-criminal sexual behaviour of males with high psychopathic traits; evidence on a pattern of unsafe/risky sexual relations by males with high psychopathic traits; information on targeting risk factors to prevent the intergenerational transmission of psychopathy.

These findings are significant in highlighting the impact of psychopathic traits upon interpersonal and family dynamics in community samples, as detecting the impact of problematic intimate relationships is difficult in the absence of evident criminality. Rather than completely neglecting their children, men with psychopathic traits spent time with their sons but not with their daughters.

This article reviews individual risk factors for bullying, especially gender, age, aggressiveness, low intelligence and achievement, hyperactivity‐impulsiveness, low empathy, low self‐esteem, depression, unpopularity, and physical and biological features. It also reports individual, family and socio‐economic predictors and correlates of bullying discovered in a longitudinal survey of 411 London boys. The most important individual risk factors are low impulsiveness and low empathy, and they could be targeted in cognitive‐behavioural skills training programmes.

This research examined some personal characteristics of victims of bullying in residential care for youth. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

A total of 601 young people aged 11-21 from 22 residential facilities in Croatia completed an anonymous self-reported bullying questionnaire, the Big Five Personality Inventory, the Basic Empathy Scale and the Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale.

The results demonstrated that male and female victims lacked self-esteem, presented with neurotic personality traits and were likely to believe that bullying was just part of life in residential care. Female victims also presented with lower levels of agreeableness and conscientiousness, while male victims were young and had a history of victimisation during their previous placement, in school and at the beginning of their current placements.

Victims in care might benefit from programmes addressing their low self-esteem, high neuroticism and attitudes approving of bullying. Male residential groups should not accommodate young boys together with older boys. New residents who have a history of victimisation during their previous placement and in school should be supervised more intensively but in a manner that does not increase their perception of being victimised.

The present study is the first work that examines individual characteristics of bullying victims in care institutions for young people. As such, the study offers some insights on how to protect residential care bullying victims.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the characteristics of bullies and victims in Canadian institutions for young offenders. The second aim is to investigate to what extent it is possible to develop risk scores that can predict who will become a bully or a victim.

In total, 185 male young offenders aged 16-19 in nine Ontario facilities were individually interviewed about their bullying and victimization, and two standardized inventories were completed.

Compared with non-bullies, bullies had spent longer in their present facility, had been bullies in a previous facility, had more previous custodial sentences, had been suspended or expelled at school, and expressed aggressive attitudes. Compared with non-victims, victims were socially isolated in custody, had failed a grade in school, had been committed to a psychiatric hospital, had been victims in a previous facility, had fewer previous custodial sentences, and were less likely to express aggressive attitudes.

Risk/needs assessment instruments should be developed to identify likely bullies and victims and guide interventions to prevent bullying in young offender institutions.

This paper shows that bullies and victims can be accurately identified based on risk factors including aggressive attitudes.

School bullying is an important social problem with serious consequences. Many studies suggest that involvement in bullying (as a perpetrator or a victim) is associated with undesirable short‐term effects on the physical and psychological health of children and with undesirable long‐term effects on their future psychosocial adjustment as adults. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether bullying perpetration predicts later criminal offending and whether bullying victimization predicts later depression.

The paper analyses data from the Pittsburgh Youth Study in which 503 boys who were originally assessed at age 6‐7 years have been followed up to age 19, with yearly or half‐yearly assessments.

Bullying perpetration in one age range, according to boys and mothers, predicted delinquency (reported by boys) in a later age range, and this relationship held up after controlling for ten major risk factors measured in an earlier age range. Bullying perpetration, according to boys, was the stronger predictor of delinquency. Bullying victimization (being bullied) in one age range predicted depression (reported by boys, mothers and teachers) in a later age range, and this relationship also held up after controlling for ten earlier risk factors. Bullying victimization according to mothers was the stronger predictor of depression.

The paper provides useful evidence which leads to the conclusion that bullying perpetration is followed by an increased risk of delinquency, and that bullying victimization is followed by an increased risk of depression.