Problem 5

Question 1

What does the age-crime curve indicate ?

Answer 1

Criminal behavior typically

1. increases during adolescence
2. peaks in late adolescence- young adulthood
3. decrease across adulthood

BUT: nontheless there is great heterogeneity in it, whether female or male

Question 2

Mofitt’s developmental taxonomy of antisocial behavior

Answer 2

Suggests that there are 3 distinct trajectories of antisocial behavior

1. Life course persistent offending trajectory

–> engaging in chronic antisocial behavior across each stage of the lifespan

2. Adolescence-limited offending trajectory

3. Abstainer trajectory

–> never engaging in antisocial behavior

Question 3

Exposure to violence or abuse has been consistently associated with delinquency (Kriminalität). Evidence suggests gender differences here.

Elaborate.

Answer 3

Studies suggest that girls have been exposed to more adverse events than boys

–> girls are more likely than boys to report that they were direct victims of trauma

Question 4

Prevalence of criminal female offenders

Answer 4

1. A majority stop/desist in their criminal behavior over time
2. Small proportion persist into mid-20s

BUT: early onset, predisposes for long-term offending

Question 5

Name the precursors of “female offenders that will persist in their criminal career”.

Answer 5

1. Exposure to more violence and abuse in their lives

–> victimization

2. Mental health problems

3. Experiencing of more adversarial interpersonal relationships

–> e.g. parents, partner, friends

Question 6

Female criminal careers follow the same overall patterns of criminal behavior as males.

Does this mean that the level of offending is the same as well?

Answer 6

No, males do

1. offend at higher rates than females

2. engage in more different types of offenses

3. have different underlying psychological and environmental factors that distinguish among their trajectories

Question 7

Do pathways to jail differ for women with and without serious mental illness?

Answer 7

Yes,

jails demonstrated high rates of mental disorders, with a majority meeting lifetime diagnostic criteria for serious mental illness

–> additionally substance use and drug offending is highly prevalent

THUS: mental illnesses are an important precursor for violent offending in females

Question 8

Female psychopathy

Answer 8

Refers to the renewed investigation into psychopathy in women

–> previously all research done on male psychopaths was just applied unto females, assuming no gender differences

BUT: the disorder is now recognized to be even more prevalent among female offenders

Question 9

Why is it essential to take gender differences into account when studying psychopathy?

Answer 9

1. The constellation of some features that define psychopathy in males may differ to those in females

2. The potential clinical + ehtical issues that might result from the misapplication of tools developed to assess male psychopathy might be devastating

Question 10

Why are female sexual offenders significantly underrepresented in literature?

Answer 10

1. Failure to recognize women as offenders allowed them to avoid

a) detection
b) prosecution
c) intervention

2. Differences that exist in their

a) offending behavior
b) victim profiles
c) personal characteristics

–> entirely different to male offenders, to whom our systems have become attuned to

Question 11

Prevalence of Femal sexual offenders (FSO) in prison populations

Answer 11

Only roughly 1%

–> whereas 15-20% of sexual offenses are committed by females, but remain undetected or simply unprosecuted

Question 12

Gender differences in sexual offenders FSO vs MSO

Answer 12

FSOs are more likely than males to

1. offend against their own biological children

2. have more significant personal trauma histories

–> e.g. sexual abuse in childhood

3. offend against female victims

–> 68%

Question 13

Why are there gender differentiated phenotypic expressions of psychopathy ?

Answer 13

Because,

borderline personality disorder (BPD) and psychopathy overlap in women

–> thus similar dispositional vulnerabilities may be expressed differently in each gender

Question 14

Psychopathy Checklist - Revised

(PCL-R; Hare)

Answer 14

Refers to a diagnostic tool for assessing psychopathy

1. consists of 20 items that are scored from 0-2

–> depending on how well it fits

2. max. score 40

Question 15

Psychopathic personality inventory (PPI)

Answer 15

Based on the criteria by Hare

–> identifies 16 criteria of psychopathy by which psychopathy can be measured

BUT: not really used as it is a self measurement

Question 16

Comprehensive Assessment of psychopathic Personality

(CAPP)

Answer 16

Is a genderneutral psychopathic personality inventory

–> suggests that – at symptom and domain levels – psychopathic men and women have key similarities, but also that important gender differences exists

Question 17

Borderline personality disorder

Answer 17

Involves extreme instability in ones own self image + ones relationships with others

–> e.g.: having unstable “love/hate” relationships with others + working over possible abandonment

Question 18

Where is the line between BPD and Psychopathy?

Answer 18

F2 trait has significant main effect on the BPD and is the one that matters

–> conceptually the F1 is not important but can mediate and act as a buffer