Impulse control, substance abuse and clinical factors in habitual criminal violence : a neuropsychological approach

Past research is reviewed in relation to criminal violence, psychopathy disordered impulse control and neuropsychological findings in these areas. Drawing upon publications from fields such as neurology, psychiatry and biochemistry, a theoretical foundation for a link between a functional disorder of impulse control and habitual impulsive violence is presented. Research on pharmacological treatment of violence is reviev.1ed as a possible alternative method to assist the violent offender to inhibit violent impulses. In order to assess whether functional impairment of impulse control may be a factor which contributes to the high local rate of habitual criminal violence on an interpersonal level, 50 violent and 50 nonviolent prisoners from Pollsmoor and Brandvlei Prisons in the Western Cape were compared on a self-report dyscontrol scale, neuropsychological measures of impulse control, incidence of substance abuse, prior head injury, and certain clinical and demographical variables. The violent group was selected on the basis of serving a current sentence for violent crime, plus a history of habitual interpersonal violence of a non-political nature from their criminal records in the prison files. The crime category of robbery was excluded from both subject groups, as it was considered to be a planned crime with an economic motive rather than an impulsive act of violence. The nonviolent sample was required to have no violent convictions of any nature, but the number of previous offences had to be comparable to those of the violent group. The total number of convictions per person ranged from 2 to 25 (mean 9.6).

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Department of Psychology

Year dc:date.issued

1994

Author dc:creator

• Van der Westhuysen, Martine J. C

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Du Preez, Peter

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/13861

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/13861