The evolutionary neuroandrogenic theory of criminal behavior expanded

Ellis, Lee M.; Hoskin, Anthony W.

doi:10.1016/j.avb.2015.05.002

Cited by 23 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 275 publications

(223 reference statements)

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“…However, the different scores of the four factors that determine Hare's PCL-R seem to point out differences in the phenotypic expression of psychopathy in the male and female gender. The reasons for these differences are not completely clear (Logan, 2009), but they seem to be due to several factors: genetic factors (Goldman & Ducci, 2007;Hoyenga, 1995), other biological factors (Ellis, 2011), primary emotion processing deficits (Miller & Lynam, 2003), and psychological, cultural, and social factors (Campbell, 2002;Lippa, 2005). Therefore, psychopathic women should have lower PCL-R F2 scores compared with male psychopathic subjects (Verona, Sprague, & Sadeh, 2012), who usually have a more antisocial and violent profile.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Psychopathy in Italian female murderers

Carabellese

Felthous

Mandarelli

et al. 2019

Behavioral Sci & The Law

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Over the years, the number of homicides in Italy has progressively decreased, ultimately becoming one of the lowest rates in Europe (357 = 0.7 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2017, according to ISTAT). The number of homicides committed by women was about 9% of the total number of homicides during our study period. The percentage has increased in recent years because the total number of homicides has decreased without a proportionate decrease in the number of female homicides. Indeed, murder is an unusual type of crime for a woman and is often associated with a mental disorder, so when a woman committed a homicide, a psychiatric assessment was often performed. A forensic psychiatry expert was assigned to investigate the offender's psychopathology and mental state at the time of the offense. The root causes of the crime remained unexplained, however, due to the lack of a psychiatric precedent to justify this kind of assessment. The role of psychopathy in homicide has seldom been studied in female offenders, even though psychopathy has an important role in violent crimes. The investigators examined, clinically and historically, a sample of women who committed murder with different levels of criminal responsibility (female homicide offenders found not guilty by reason of insanity, having partial criminal responsibility, and convicted as criminally responsible and sentenced to prison) to identify the prevalence of the psychopathic dimension and its possible role in this sample. Prevalence and degree of psychopathic traits were examined in these female offenders using the Psychopathy Checklist‐Revised. This study showed that females who had committed homicide were likely to suffer from mental illness; most of the homicidal acts were committed impulsively; and most female homicides occurred within the family, especially among women who were psychotic, but less so if they were psychopathic. Psychopathy tended to co‐occur more with personality disorders than with psychotic psychopathology. Psychopathy was more evident among female homicide offenders who had been abused or traumatized. Psychopathic women who killed had high factor F1 scores and low antisocial component of factor F2.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Psychopathy in Italian female murderers

Carabellese

Felthous

Mandarelli

et al. 2019

Behavioral Sci & The Law

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“…Several methodological characteristics from each study were coded to determine the degree to which they influence the effect size estimates, which can be observed in table . First, because the 2D:4D ratio may be linked more strongly with some behaviors than with others (Ellis and Hoskin, ), we created a categorical variable for the type of outcome and coded for whether each effect size corresponded to aggression, risky/impulsive behavior (i.e., risk‐taking and sensation‐seeking behaviors and behavioral measures of impulsivity), or criminal behavior (i.e., violent and nonviolent offending). Most effect sizes in the sample correspond to aggression ( n = 335, 50.8 percent) and risky/impulsive behaviors ( n = 237, 35.9 percent), and a smaller portion involves criminal offending ( n = 88, 13.3 percent).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…First, aggressive behavior came about as a natural part of human evolution, among males in particular (Ellis, Das, and Buker, ; see also Batrinos, ). This happened, scholars argued, as an evolutionary response to competition surrounding female mating preferences, where females generally prefer dominant males to submissive ones (Ellis, , ; Ellis and Hoskin, ). Second, and relatedly, exposure to certain androgens—a class of hormones including testosterone—alters brain neurochemistry, especially when that exposure occurs in the prenatal environment (Carre and Olmstead, ; Manning et al., ).…”

Section: Criminology Biosocial Perspectives and The 2d:4d Ratiomentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In its most recent incarnation, for instance, Hoskin and Ellis () specified several indirect relationships surrounding genetic/prenatal factors (e.g., genes and prenatal environments), neurological characteristics (e.g., seizure susceptibility and brain hemispheric functioning), cognitive and emotional development (e.g., executive functioning and emotional volatility), and various behavior and personality dimensions (e.g., criminal and antisocial behavior, hyperactivity, and fearlessness). Thus, ENA theory lays out a set of causal processes that, once initiated by the exposure to fetal testosterone, unfold through a series of links over the course of many years (see also Ellis and Hoskin, ). We do, however, argue that such complexity can essentially be boiled down to a straightforward causal sequence where exposure to prenatal testosterone leads to increased aggression and a greater propensity for risky/impulsive behavior that, in turn, ultimately leads to criminal behavior (Ellis et al., )…”

Section: Criminology Biosocial Perspectives and The 2d:4d Ratiomentioning

confidence: 99%

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Revisiting the Criminological Consequences of Exposure to Fetal Testosterone: A Meta‐analysis of the 2d:4d Digit Ratio*

2016

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As criminology has become more interdisciplinary in recent years, biosocial criminology has earned a place at the table. Although this perspective comes in many forms, one important proposition has gained increasing attention: that the 2D:4D finger digit ratio—a purported physical biomarker for exposure to fetal testosterone—is related to criminal, aggressive, and risky/impulsive behavior. Strong claims in the literature have been made for this link even though the findings seem to be inconsistent. To establish the empirical status of this relationship, we subjected this body of work to a meta‐analysis. Our multilevel analyses of 660 effect size estimates drawn from 47 studies (14,244 individual cases) indicate a small overall effect size (mean r = .047). Moderator analyses indicate that this effect is rather “general” across methodological specifications—findings that are at odds with theoretical propositions that specify the importance of exposure to fetal testosterone in predicting criminal and analogous behavior later in life. We conclude with a call for exercising caution over embracing the findings from one or two studies and instead highlight the importance of systematically organizing the full body of literature on a topic before making decisions about what does, and what does not, predict criminal and analogous behavior.

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“…order to explain consistently observed patterns in criminal offending Ellis 1988;Ellis and Hoskin 2015;Mishra and Lalumière 2008;see also Camilleri 2012;Camilleri and Stiver 2014;Lalumière et al 2008 for additional evolutionary treatments of chronic criminality, as well as the evolution of related phenotypes like psychopathy). At a proximal level (where most criminological theorizing has focused), Moffitt (1993Moffitt ( , 2006 offered evidence that there are at least two groups of offenders in the population: life-coursepersistent (LCP) offenders and adolescence-limited (AL) offenders.…”

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confidence: 99%

A Behavioral Genetic Test of the Evolutionary Taxonomy

Boutwell

Nedelec

Lewis

et al. 2015

Evolutionary Psychological Science

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Life-course-persistent (LCP) offending has been intensely studied over the last several decades resulting in an impressive amount of evidence linking chronic offending with a host of negative outcomes including violence, impulsiveness, and sexual promiscuity. Although much evidence also exists regarding the origins of LCP offending, emergent work is attempting to unify this knowledge under the umbrella of evolutionary biology using life history theory. The current study draws on this work-specifically, the Evolutionary Taxonomy-in order to further probe the etiology of chronic antisocial behavior. Using quantitative genetic methods and data from a national sample of twins, the current study examines whether LCP offending and the life history trait of sexual promiscuity might be linked at an underlying genetic level.Analyses of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) data suggest that a shared genetic scaffold might be responsible for some of the covariation of LCP offending with the life history trait of sexual promiscuity. Specifically, the current analyses revealed evidence that overlapping genetic factors influenced both sexual involvement and LCP offender classification. Our results offer insight regarding the evolution of the traits that distinguish LCP offenders from the rest of the population. LCP offending may represent a set of life history traits that, over the course of human evolution, clustered together in small segments of the population. The findings lend support for the Evolutionary Taxonomy proposed to explain the ultimate origins of criminal offending.

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The evolutionary neuroandrogenic theory of criminal behavior expanded

Cited by 23 publications

References 275 publications

Psychopathy in Italian female murderers

Psychopathy in Italian female murderers

Revisiting the Criminological Consequences of Exposure to Fetal Testosterone: A Meta‐analysis of the 2d:4d Digit Ratio*

A Behavioral Genetic Test of the Evolutionary Taxonomy

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