A preliminary study on findings of psychopathy and affective disorders in adult sex offenders

The construct of psychopathy has often been considered mutually exclusive to the presence of genuine depressive or anxiety symptomotology. This article addresses the hypothesized reasons for this dichotomous relationship. In this study, 68 civilly committed adult male sex offenders were evaluated using a variety of psychological measures to determine if psychopathic individuals in this group would demonstrate clinically significant affective symptoms. Results indicate that the men in this sample endorsed high rates of psychopathy on the PCL-R, with 42% of these expressing concurrent symptoms of depression and 26% manifesting symptoms of an anxiety disorder. Relationships between affective symptoms and PCL-R factor scores and qualitative differences between these constructs in child molesters and rapists are also discussed.     

A DNA microarray system for forensic SNP analysis

Forensic DNA analysis is routinely performed using polymorphic short tandem repeat (STR) markers. However, for degraded or minute DNA samples, analysis of autosomal single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in short fragments might be more successful. Furthermore, sequencing of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is often performed on highly degraded or scarce samples due to the high copy number of mtDNA in each cell. Due to the increasing number of complete mtDNA genome sequences available, the limited discrimination power of an mtDNA analysis, may be increased by analysis of coding region polymorphisms in addition to the non-coding variation. Since sequence analysis of the coding region would require more material than generally present in forensic samples, an alternative SNP analysis approach is required. We have developed a one-colour microarray-based SNP detection system for limited forensic materials. The method is based on minisequencing in solution prior to hybridisation to universal tag-arrays. In a first outline of a forensic chip, a combination of 12 nuclear and 21 mitochondrial SNP markers are analysed simultaneously. The mitochondrial markers on the chip are polymorphisms within the hypervariable region as well as in the coding region. Even though the number of markers in the current system is limited, it can easily be extended to yield a greater power of discrimination. When fully developed, microarray analysis provides a promising system for efficient sensitive SNP analysis of forensic samples in the future.     

Correlates of self-concept among black early adolescents

This study examines the self-concept of Black eighth-grade students from the Midwest in relation to Black acceptance, social intimacy, locus of control, and sex-role type. Twenty-eight students high in self-concept were compared with 31 students whose self-concept was low. As predicted, the high self-concept group scored higher than the low self-concept group in intimacy, internality, and acceptance of black identity. As also predicted, the high self-concept group had a significantly greater number of adolescents with masculine and androgynous sex roles than the low self-concept group; Black females with high self-concepts included a larger proportion of individuals with androgynous sex roles than low self-concept females. However, the prediction that high self-concept males would have a larger proportion of masculine sex roles than low self-concept males was not supported. The difficult situation of the low self-concept adolescents is discussed, along with the implications for intervention.On clinic internship at Smolian Psychiatric Clinic in Birmingham, Alabama. Major interests are clinical psychology and Black identity.Received Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Colorado. Major interests are the development of intimacy and identity in adolescence and young adulthood.