Identifying violent offenders using a video measure of interpersonal distance

Neuronal correlates of personal space intrusion in violent offenders

Personal space (PS) is defined as the imagery region immediately surrounding our body, which acts as safety zone. It has been suggested that PS is enlarged in violent offenders and that this group shows an enhanced sensitivity to the reduction of interpersonal distance. In the present fMRI study high-risk violent offenders and noncriminal controls were presented with photos of neutral facial expressions by men and women. All images were shown twice, as static photos, and animated (i.e., appearing to approach the subject) in order to simulate PS intrusion. Approaching faces generally provoked activation of a fronto-parietal network and the insula. Offenders responded with greater insula activation to approaching faces, especially when the person was male. Insular activation has been recognized before as a neuronal correlate of potential threat and harm detection in PS. The increased reactivity of violent offenders is possibly a result of their hostile attribution bias.

Simulating Intrusion Into Personal Space Among Violent Offenders: The Role of Disgust

Intrusion into one's own personal space (PS) elicits discomfort. This is especially true when the intruder's facial mimicry expresses disgust or anger. Although it is known that the affective context influences PS processing, this has not been investigated in violent offenders. We presented images of affective facial expressions (i.e., anger, disgust, neutral) of men and women to violent offenders and nonoffenders. All images were shown twice-once as nonanimated photos and a second time as expanding (i.e., appearing to approach the participant). The participants rated their experienced arousal and valence for each image and completed personality questionnaires for the assessment of disgust proneness (tendency to experience disgust), disgust sensitivity (tendency to perceive one's own disgust feelings as aversive and uncontrollable), self-disgust (tendency to find oneself repulsive), and trait anger (tendency to experience anger). Offenders reported significantly elevated disgust proneness, self-disgust, and negative affect to male facial expressions of disgust. The negative affect experienced by offenders in the approaching disgust condition correlated with their self-disgust. Future studies should specifically investigate the association between sensitivity to disgust cues reflecting social rejection, self-disgust, and violent behavior.

Challenges in research with incarcerated parents and importance in violence prevention

Incarcerated parents present several risk factors for later violence by their children. This study uses comparison groups and repeated measures to evaluate an inmate parenting program. Subjects are inmates at a county detention center, their children, and primary caregivers. Challenges to program implementation and longitudinal research with inmates were identified, along with recommendations to assist future research and programming. Training material should use illustrated, basic language format. Acceptance and participation by inmates and staff require ongoing outreach and communication. Severed relationships are common and future research on inmates with stable family relationships is recommended. Because of inmate transience, integrating parent training into post-release programming is suggested.

Results of the ESA study on psychological selection of astronaut candidates for Columbus Missions II: personality assessment

A unique composition of personality assessment methods was applied to a group of 97 ESA scientists and engineers. This group is highly comparable to real astronaut candidates with respect to age and education. The list of used tests includes personality questionnaires, problem solving in groups as well as a projective technique. The study goals were: 1. Verification of psychometric qualities and applicability of tests to the target group; 2. Search for culture-fair tests by which multi-national European groups can be examined; 3. Identification of test methods by which the adaptability of the candidates to the psycho-social stress of long-duration space flights can be assessed. Based on the empirical findings, a test battery was defined which can be used in the selection of ESA space personnel.

Differences in interpersonal distance among nonoffenders as a function of perceived violence of offenders

A group of 39 female and 15 male undergraduate students took part in a study of the relationship between perceived violence of criminal offenders and interpersonal distance preferred by nonoffenders. Preferred interpersonal distance, measured for subjects informed that the person with whom they would be sitting in a room was either a violent offender, nonviolent offender, or nonoffender, was the number of seats subjects chose to sit from the person. Analysis of variance shows subjects preferred significantly less mean distance in the nonoffender condition versus either the nonviolent or violent offender conditions.