Attention and Executive Function Deficits in Adolescent Sex Offenders

Abstract

Thirty male adolescent sex offenders and 20 age-matched male adolescents completed an extensive battery of attention and executive function tests. Controls were obtained from adolescents from a socially and economically deprived background, typical of the offending group. The attention battery was based on Mirksy, Anthony, Duncan, Ahearn, and Kellam (1991) and the executive function battery on Kelly (2000a). Successful matching for IQ was not achieved and therefore ANCOVA comparisons were made between the groups, with IQ as the covariate. In attention a highly significant difference was found on the focus-execute factor and a significant difference on the shift factor. In executive function there was a highly significant difference only on the response speed factor. In all cases better abilities were demonstrated by the control group. The importance of thorough neuropsychological investigation in the clinical assessment of this forensic group is supported. The clinical implications of neuropsychological deficits in terms of risk assessment and clinical management are discussed.

The Neuropsychology and Neurology of Sexual Deviance: A Review and Pilot Study

“…Lezak et al 2004). Average or good capacities at the WCST are commonly observed among sexual offenders when socio-demographic factors are controlled (this and several other preliminary studies; Cohen et al 2002;Dolan et al 2002;Kelly et al 2002;Martin 1999;Miller 1998;Rubenstein 1992). The WCST is a well-known measure of higher-order executive functions (e.g.…”

“…Galski et al 1990;Gillespie and McKenzie 2000;Hucker et al 1988;Langevin et al 1989a;O'Carroll 1989;Stone and Thompson 2001;Dolan et al 2002;Kelly et al 2002), although several methodological limitations were present. Among these were the inclusion of different subgroups of sexual offenders; the absence of comparison with persons representing the general population (comparing exclusively with non-sexual offenders elevates the risk of false negative results); the lack of consideration for socio-cultural backgrounds or demographic factors such as education and I.Q.…”

“…Another important avenue to investigate is the type of modus operandis among sexual offenders, as different subgroups might present different neuropsychological profiles, which is stressed by a growing number of authors (e.g. Cantor et al 2005;Kelly et al 2002). For instance, it is intuitively conceivable that impulsive intra-familial pedophilia would be associated with a distinct cognitive profile than that linked with wellplanned sadistic sequestrations of chosen adult targets.…”

“…Again, these negative results might either reflect the absence of comparisons with a group of non-offenders or the absence of difference between sexual and nonsexual offenders. Kelly et al (2002) used an extensive neuropsychological battery to compare 30 male adolescent sex offenders (including incest offenders, extra-familial pedophiles, and rapists of adults or adolescents) with 20 male adolescents living in an under-privileged neighborhood. Sexual offenders showed significant impairment in working memory, lower-order executive functioning (sustained attention and inhibition), and fluency (verbal and non-verbal), comforting the fronto-temporal anomaly hypothesis.…”

Magnetic Resonance Techniques in Study of Sexual Stimuli Processing in Paedophilia

“…On one hand, the Frontal-Dysexecutive Theories associate sexual offending with dysfunction of frontal cortex and behavioural disinhibition. Proponents of this theory cite studies that show that heterogeneous groups of sexual offenders perform poorly on tests that assess executive functioning, tests as for example: Verbal Fluency, Digit Span, Tower of London, Porteus Mazes, Stroop, Trail-Making, and Wisconsin Card Sort (Dolan et al, 2002;Kelly et al, 2002;Stone & Thompson, 2001;Valliant et al, 2000). b.…”