Here is a new study that I submit for your consideration.

[Jackpine Radical]

I think it has a lot to do with many things happening in America these days.

Depression and violence: a Swedish population study

Prof Seena Fazel, MDcorrespondenceemail, Achim Wolf, MSc, Zheng Chang, PhD, Henrik Larsson, PhD, Prof Guy M Goodwin, FMedSci, Prof Paul Lichtenstein, PhD
Open AccessArticle has an altmetric score of 178
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(14)00128-X
Open access funded by Wellcome Trust

Background
Depression increases the risk of a range of adverse outcomes including suicide, premature mortality, and self-harm, but associations with violent crime remain uncertain. We aimed to determine the risks of violent crime in patients with depression and to investigate the association between depressive symptoms and violent crime in a cohort of twins.

Methods
We conducted two studies. The first was a total population study in Sweden of patients with outpatient diagnoses of depressive disorders (n=47 158) between 2001 and 2009 and no lifetime inpatient episodes. Patients were age and sex matched to general population controls (n=898 454) and risk of violent crime was calculated. Additionally, we compared the odds of violent crime in unaffected half-siblings (n=15 534) and full siblings (n=33 516) of patients with the general population controls. In sensitivity analyses, we examined the contribution of substance abuse, sociodemographic factors, and previous criminality. In the second study, we studied a general population sample of twins (n=23 020) with continuous measures of depressive symptoms for risk of violent crime.

Findings
During a mean follow-up period of 3·2 years, 641 (3·7%) of the depressed men and 152 (0·5%) of the depressed women violently offended after diagnosis. After adjustment for sociodemographic confounders, the odds ratio of violent crime was 3·0 (95% CI 2·8–3·3) compared with the general population controls. The odds of violent crime in half-siblings (adjusted odds ratio 1·2 [95% CI 1·1–1·4]) and full siblings (1·5, 95% CI 1·3–1·6) were significantly increased, showing some familial confounding of the association between depression and violence. However, the odds increase remained significant in individuals with depression after adjustment for familial confounding, and in those without substance abuse comorbidity or a previous violent conviction (all p<0·0001). In the twin study, during the mean follow-up time of 5·4 years, 88 violent crimes were recorded. Depressive symptoms were associated with increased risk of violent crime and a sensitivity analysis identified little difference in risk estimate when all crimes (violent and non-violent) was the outcome.

Interpretation
Risk of violent crime was increased in individuals with depression after adjustment for familial, sociodemographic and individual factors in two longitudinal studies. Clinical guidelines should consider recommending violence risk assessment in certain subgroups with depression.

Funding
Wellcome Trust and the Swedish Research Council.

[NYC_SKP]

1. Recommended.

We often treat the symptoms, not the causes.

Disruptive student? Throw them out.

Later we learn that over 90% in juvenile halls suffer a learning or emotional disorder.

I only recently learned that a disproportionate number of prison inmates suffered vision deficits at an early age.

Thanks for the post.

[Jackpine Radical]

2. Most prison inmates actually have a lot of crap jamming up their lives--

which is what makes criminals of them. Most of them never really had a chance.

John Bowlby showed many years ago that most young habitual thieves had attachment disorders due to their parents' inability to form healthy, loving bonds with them starting in infancy.

There is good evidence from brain research that most violent criminals have varying degrees of functinal deficits in frontal & prefrontal areas.

Disorders of extreme stress, such as dissociation, PTSD, high anxiety, and depression are endemic.

I could go on, but you get the idea. I spent more than 20 years of my life in a primarily criminal forensic practice, during which time I conducted more than 2500 evaluations of criminal defendants, probationers, parolees, inmates, and persons being evaluated for commitment as sexually violent predators, and this is my short summary of what I kept seeing.

[Rolando]

4. When I was victimized

by such a criminal, I didn't really care about his "attachment disorder." I wanted my life back. It's annoying to see experts using behavioral science to turn violent, antisocial behavior into some kind of clinical disease.

[Jackpine Radical]

5. Why is it tht people get so exercised about "retail criminals"

and want to hang them and all that, but they are perfectly willing to let the wholesale criminals of Wall street skate free to do it again and again?

Who is the worse threat to society, the executives whose cost-benefit analysis showed that it would be cheaper to pay off an estimated 1500 wrongful death lawsuits than to recall the Exploding Pintos for a $15 gas tank fix to keep them from immolating people?

Oh--I forgot. Those people are all victims of Affluenza and really can't help themselves.

[Voice for Peace]

3. there is some fascinating research from many years back

about the relationship between stimulation of the somato-sensory
system during pregnancy and early childhood, and brain development
which directly affects social interaction and the ability to experience
pleasure.

The tendencies toward violence, depression, substance abuse,
and more appear directly related to this lack of crucial brain
development.

There's a Time-Life program about this research -- it is hard to
watch because monkeys are being used, but it is nevertheless
compelling. "Rockabye Baby"

Lots here: www.violence.de

Dr. Prescott's funding was cut by the NIH.. too controversial.

[Jackpine Radical]

6. Harry Harlow was one of my professors.

I could tell you lots of Harlow stories; he was quite a character as well as a hopeless drunk.

He really changed the scene in psychology. There is a book written about that era called Love at Goon Park.

(The old Psych building on the UW campus was at 600 N. Park, so everyone chose to read "600 N." as "GOON."

There is also Harlow's APA Presidential address in 1950, called "Mice, Monkeys, Men and Motives," in which he destroys Skinnerian behaviorism.* It was printed in about 1952 in the American Psychologist.



*Actually, Harlow landed the first major blow against Skinnerianism with that address and paper; the second, and pretty much fatal, blow was from our dear old friend Noam Chomsky in his devastating 1959 review of Skinner's Verbal Behavior.

[Trillo]

7. Are cops one of the subgroups in need of violence risk assessment? NT

[Jackpine Radical]

8. I wouldn't be surprised if depression turned out to be

part of the clinical picture underlying cop misbehavior.

I have never done cop pre-hire psych workups, and that whole pre-employment area was never one of my specialties so I really have no very detailed or current information here, but certainly there is a strong connection between depression, irritability, negativity, etc.

Also, the cop subculture is a pretty hard-drinking tribe. Depression is a major factor behind a lot of alcohol abuse.

[Voice for Peace]

9. I'm pretty sure that cops are trained to think and act like sociopaths.

Not saying that casually. I have only ever met one
cop who treated me like a fellow human being. Most
have been.. well, robotic, cold, hard.

[Jackpine Radical]

10. "robotic, cold, hard."

They're trained to be authoritarian assholes, but that doesn't always equate to psychopathy. In fact, "robotic, cold, hard" are not psychopathic traits.

If you don't mind a little digression, the precise nature of psychopathy is a point of contention among experts in the field. Robert Hare, creator of the Psychopathy Checklist (including revisions), finds that that instrument identifies 2 major factors, each of which is divided into 2 facets.

Heer's the Hare schema:

Factor 1

Facet 1: Interpersonal

Glibness/superficial charm
Grandiose sense of self-worth
Pathological lying
Cunning/manipulative

Facet 2: Affective

Lack of remorse or guilt
Emotionally shallow
Callous/lack of empathy
Failure to accept responsibility for own actions

Factor 2

Facet 3: Lifestyle

Need for stimulation/proneness to boredom
Parasitic lifestyle
Lack of realistic, long-term goals
Impulsivity
Irresponsibility

Facet 4: Antisocial

Poor behavioral controls
Early behavioral problems
Juvenile delinquency
Revocation of conditional release
Criminal versatility

On the other hand Scott Lilienfeld's work with the Psychopathic Personality Inventory (also now in a revised form) suggests that psychopathy is composed of 3 factors, each composed of 1 to 4 subscales:

Psychopathic Personality Inventory: Factors and Subscales

PPI–1: Fearless dominance
Social influence
Fearlessness
Stress immunity

PPI–2: Impulsive Antisociality

Machiavellian egocentricity
Rebellious nonconformity
Blame externalization
Carefree nonplanfulness

PPI-3: Coldheartedness

The major difference between the 2 is that the Hare was developed mostly on prison inmates (mostly Canadian) and weights the examinee's street crime history heavily in the scoring, while Lilienfeld is more focused on the personality traits that comprise psychopathy.

Although I have used both (often on the same examinee), I much prefer the PPI-R.

First, the Hare is hard to score, typically requiring half a day of interviews, record reviews, etc. for each examinee; second, the Hare is not reliable in real-world adversarial situations (e.g. in death penalty cases), with opposing experts giving wildly different scores, while the PPI-R is much faster, easily computer scored, and produces very reliable results.

Second, because of its focus on street crime, juvenile delinquency, etc., the PCL-R is saturated with social class bias. It picks up only what I think of as "low-functioning" psychopaths, i.e. those who have impulse control problems, who commit impulsive street crimes, and who are dumb enough to get caught frequently.

In other words, a rich little shits don't get those juvenile records and stay out of prison despite emitting behaviors at least as bad as those of the street criminals. (Remember the Affluenza defense?) They score lower on the Hare just because of their social advantages.

And then there are the Cheneys, the Ken Lays, the Koch Brothers, and their ilk. Although thoroughly psychopathic in my book, they would also score low on the Hare, both because of their social class advantages and because they are very clever and able to defer gratification, so their evil schemes tend to work and they get away with their antisocial behavior.

[Octafish]

11. Kick for those who missed an important echo of history.

Thank you, Jackpine Radical!