Bell Rebecca K, Polaschek Devon L L
School of Psychology, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand.
Psychiatr Psychol Law. 2016 Dec 6;24(4):576-593. doi: 10.1080/13218719.2016.1256016. eCollection 2017.
Moffitt's (1993) developmental theory suggests that offenders on the life-course persistent (LCP) trajectory inherit or acquire neuropsychological deficits that compromise impulse control, and ultimately contribute to criminality. Empirical tests of this notion with adult LCP offenders are rare; the expected degree of impairment and which mechanisms are unclear. This research adopted a neurocognitive framework that proposes three cognitive mechanisms of impulse control: decision-making, perceptual control, and motor impulse control. Participants were 77 adult males, predominantly LCP prisoners completed five assessment tasks during pre-treatment assessment. Overall, proportions of impairment were unexpectedly low within and across cognitive impulse control domains. The highest proportions of impairment were observed on tasks requiring cognitive flexibility and sustained attention, and only cognitive flexibility uniquely predicted estimated pre-treatment violence risk. Results suggest the need to disaggregate cognitive from personality and behavioural variants of impulsivity and to further investigate how impaired cognitive flexibility affects progress during and following treatment.
莫菲特（1993年）的发展理论表明，处于生命历程中持续犯罪（LCP）轨迹的罪犯继承或获得了损害冲动控制能力的神经心理缺陷，最终导致犯罪行为。针对成年LCP罪犯对这一概念进行实证检验的情况很少见；预期的损伤程度以及具体机制尚不清楚。本研究采用了一种神经认知框架，该框架提出了冲动控制的三种认知机制：决策、感知控制和运动冲动控制。研究参与者为77名成年男性，主要是LCP囚犯，他们在治疗前评估期间完成了五项评估任务。总体而言，在认知冲动控制领域内和跨领域的损伤比例出人意料地低。在需要认知灵活性和持续注意力的任务上观察到的损伤比例最高，并且只有认知灵活性能够唯一预测治疗前估计的暴力风险。结果表明，有必要将冲动性的认知因素与人格和行为因素区分开来，并进一步研究受损的认知灵活性如何影响治疗期间及治疗后的进展。
