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MULTIVARIATE INVESTIGATION OF ASSAULTIVE BEHAVIOR
Abstract
There is considerable evidence that American citizens are alarmed by the frequency with which violence seems to invade our communities and neighborhoods. Scientists have attempted to understand and predict the phenomenon of interpersonal assault with little success. Most of this research has been constructed upon the foundation of personality theory, which may have been a necessary but insufficiently parsimonious paradigm. This investigation has examined the neuropsychological performance, personality characteristics, the tendency toward aggressivity and the substance abuse histories of persons convicted of multiple interpersonal assaults. These measures were compared with a group of offenders who had been convicted of nonviolent crimes, such as burglary. The data show that violent offenders were more likely than nonviolent criminals to suffer from brain dysfunction. No reliable differences were found between the two groups on measures of personality characteristics and tendency toward aggressiveness. Many subjects in both groups met accepted criteria for diagnosing a substance abuse disorder, but there was no statistically significant difference between the two groups. The results of previous studies suggest that persons who have been convicted of sexual assault may have a similar pattern of neuropsychological deficits as subjects convicted of nonsexual assault. This investigation examined the neuropsychological performance, personality characteristics, aggressivity, and substance abuse patterns of a group of sexual assaulters. The results show that the sexual assaulters were more likely than nonassaultive offenders to have deficits in brain functioning, but that other variables yielded unreliable results.
Subject Area
Psychotherapy
Recommended Citation
SCOTT, MONTE LANE, "MULTIVARIATE INVESTIGATION OF ASSAULTIVE BEHAVIOR" (1983). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI8404849.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI8404849