Decision Making, Emotion Recognition and Childhood Traumatic Experiences in Murder Convicts Imprisoned with Aggravated Life Sentence: A Prison Study.

Abstract

Introduction: Decision-making and emotion recognition are two fundamental themes in social cognition. Disorders in these areas can lead to interpersonal, psychosocial, and legal problems for the individual and society. The likelihood of consequent aggression and crime makes them foci of forensic psychiatry over time. In this study, two developmental disorders that have a clear relationship with crime, that are antisocial personality disorder (ASPD), and psychopathy are investigated for their relationship with these social cognitive deficits.

Methods: The present study involved 23 male prison inmates who were diagnosed with both antisocial personality disorder and psychopathy, as well as 23 control participants who were matched for age, gender, and level of education. Following the psychiatric interview, Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET), the Iowa Gambling Test (IGT), Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS), Defense Styles Questionnaire (DSQ), Childhood Psychic Trauma Scale (CTQ), Hare Psychopathy Checklist (PCL-R) were administered to all participants.

Results: The results of the study showed that ASPD group performed statistically worse than healthy controls in TAS, CTQ, all items of DSQ, PCL-R Factor 1 and 2, and all the IGT scores (p<0.05). There were no statistically significant difference between in the RMET test performances.

Conclusion: These results suggest that ASPD and psychopathy lead to impaired decision-making behaviors due to the inability to recognize one's own emotions and impulsivity, and that these characteristics play a critical role in the criminal behavior of individuals. In addition, contrary to expectations, the results of affective theory of mind assessed with the RMET showed similar characteristics in homicide convicts and healthy controls. These data indicate the need for further research in the field of forensic psychiatry.