Gender, Threat/Control-Override Delusions and Violence

This study brings together the threat/control-override perspective and the literature on gender and stress coping to argue that gender moderates the association between threat delusions and violence. We suggest that men are more likely than women to respond to stressors such as threat delusions with violence. We test these ideas using data from the MacArthur Violence Risk Assessment Study, a multi-wave study of post-discharge psychiatric patients. Within-person results from two-level hierarchical models support the idea that men and women cope with threat delusions differently. Specifically, we find that men are significantly more likely to engage in violence during periods when they experience threat delusions, compared with periods when they do not experience threat delusions. In contrast, women are significantly less likely to engage in violence during times when they experience threat delusions, compared with periods when they do not. We discuss these findings in light of the literature on gender and stress coping.     

Dissection of the prongs of ALI. A retrospective assessment of criminal responsibility by the psychiatric staff of the Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center

The staff of the Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center has systematically reassessed the impact of the proposed modification of the ALI test removing the second prong. Findings of this retrospective survey reveal few changes in the composite staff opinions reported by the hospital but many variations in the opinions of individual psychiatrists when rating the prongs independently. The effect of these changes in Maryland (while difficult to anticipate) might be an increase in litigation. The resulting fiscal impact, therefore, not only could affect the Division of Corrections but also could increase court costs. The data suggest that rather than limiting psychiatric testimony and ensuring that only the sickest patients are exculpated, the proposed truncation of ALI may have paradoxical consequences. There may be more frequent battles of the experts based on less rigorous science and potential exclusion of affective psychosis from appropriate access to the defense of insanity. While the study methods and sample size prohibit reliable conclusions concerning the likelihood of these consequences in vivo, the issues raised strongly support a need for further investigation before a relatively well-functioning legal framework is changed in favor of the untested rubric of the proposed modifications of ALI.     

The Role of Depressed Mood and Anger in the Relationship Between Family Conflict and Delinquent Behavior

Drawing on R. Agnew's (Foundation for a general strain theory of crime and delinquency. Criminology 30: 47–87, 1992) general strain theory, this paper examines whether depressed mood and anger mediate the effects of family conflict on delinquency. We examine data on 7758 students, 14–16 years old, attending the compulsory 9th and 10th grades of the Icelandic secondary school system. We use structural equation modeling to show that exposure to arguments and fights at home are positively related to both depressed mood and anger among adolescents. Anger is positively associated with delinquent behavior whereas depressed mood has no effect on delinquency.     

Narcissistic Features in Young Adolescents: Relations to Aggression and Internalizing Symptoms

Recent research and theory suggest narcissistic features contribute to aggression in adults. The present study examined the association of narcissistic features with aggression and internalizing symptoms in 233 students of 5th–8th grade at three inner-city schools. A factor analysis of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory in this sample revealed three factors: Adaptive Narcissism, Exploitativeness, and Exhibitionism. Regression analyses were used to predict the association of these three narcissistic features with self-, teacher-, and peer-reported aggression and self-reported internalizing symptoms. Results indicate narcissistic exploitativeness positively predicted self-reported proactive aggression, and narcissistic exhibitionism positively predicted internalizing symptoms. Narcissism and self-esteem interacted to predict teacher-reported aggression and self-reported internalizing symptoms. Results are discussed in the context of existing theories of narcissism, threatened egotism, and self-perception bias.