A neuropsychological study of first-time sex offenders over the age of 50: the possible contribution of cognitive deficits in sexual offending
Frontotemporal function deficits in sex offenders have been reported in many studies. The aim of this study was to investigate the neuropsychological function of elderly first-time sex offenders (FT), who were charged with sexual offences after the age of 50. FT sex offenders demonstrate similar per...
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| Format: | Electronic Book |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2014
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| In: | Year: 2014 |
| Online Access: |
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| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Summary: | Frontotemporal function deficits in sex offenders have been reported in many studies. The aim of this study was to investigate the neuropsychological function of elderly first-time sex offenders (FT), who were charged with sexual offences after the age of 50. FT sex offenders demonstrate similar performance to historical sex offenders while non-sex offender controls outperformed FT sex offenders on a number of executive and temporal lobe function measures. Although the three groups did not significantly differ, a high proportion of offenders were impaired on a proxy measure of social cognition, the Facial Expression of Emotion: Stimuli and Tests (FEEST), compared to normative data. Significantly, 61% of FT sex offenders were impaired on the FEEST. Deficits in executive function may contribute to sexual offending early in life due to neurodevelopmental anomalies and later in life, due to many possible factors, i.e., cardiovascular disease, drug and alcohol abuse, depression or brain trauma. Overall, the current results by FT sex offenders, resemble those found in patients with behavioural frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), who also demonstrate significant difficulties in executive function as well difficulty identifying the emotions of others, lack empathy, have difficulties in understanding social cues and show marked behavioural difficulties in social situations |
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| DOI: | 10.5553/tcr/092986492015023001005 |