Seattle University Collaborative Projects - International Academy of ...

Psychopathy and Behavior Problems in Incarcerated Male and Female JuvenileDelinquentsPedro Pechorro, University of Lisbon (ppechorro@gmail.com)The objective of this study was to compare incarcerated male and female juvenile offendersregarding psychopathic traits, behavior problems, psychopathy taxon, conduct disorder, selfreporteddelinquent behavior, and crime seriousness. Within a total forensic sample of 261detainee participants, subdivided in a male group (n = 217) and a female group (n = 44),statistically significant differences were found. Female juvenile offenders show less callousunemotionaltraits, more emotional symptoms, more prosocial behaviors, less self-reporteddelinquent behavior, and lower crime seriousness. Conduct disorder prevalence was very high,but no statistically significant gender differences were found. The predictive importance ofpsychopathic traits, behavior problems, psychopathy taxon, and conduct disorder for theprediction of group membership (female versus male) was established by binary logisticregression.138. Psychopaths: How They Think, Act and Benefit fromTreatment, a Neurobiological PerspectivePsychopaths Know Right From Wrong, They Just Don’t CareMaaike Cima, Tilburg University (M.J.Cima@uvt.nl)The behavior of psychopaths is, without doubt, morally inappropriate, including murder, sexualmolestation, fraud, and arson. Further, clinical analyses show that they present abnormalemotional profiles, as well as problems with inhibitory control, often leading to both reactive andinstrumental aggression. What is unclear is the extent to which psychopaths suffer from damageto morally-specific knowledge that, in healthy individuals, guides intuitive judgments of rightand wrong independently of their moral actions. On the one hand, studies indicate thatpsychopaths, both adults and juveniles, show a diminished capacity to distinguish betweenconventional and moral transgressions. Psychopaths also show diminished inhibitory control, adeficit that may contribute to their impulsive behavior, especially in the context of violence. Thisresearch has led to the view that because of their emotional deficits, psychopaths havecorresponding deficits in moral knowledge, which, coupled with poor inhibitory control, leads tomorally inappropriate behavior. Two studies will be presented here. The first study examineswhether psychopaths know right from wrong. In this study psychopathic offenders werepresented with moral dilemmas, contrasting their judgments with age- and sex-matched 1)healthy subjects and 2) non-psychopathic delinquents. The second study investigates whetherpsychopaths understand and feel pain, by asking offenders (psychopaths and non-psychpopaths)to make decisions regarding the severity of pictures that depict moral or non-moral situations and325