The impact of brain injury on within-individual changes in moral disengagement: implications for criminal and antisocial behavior

Abstract

Objectives The current study aims to further unpack the link between head injury and criminal behavior by examining the association between brain injury and changes in moral disengagement. Methods The current study uses the Pathways to Desistance study (N = 1354) to estimate a series of longitudinal cross-lagged dynamic panel models to examine within-individual changes in moral disengagement across the study period. Results The results revealed that moral disengagement decreased over time, but sustaining a head injury resulted in a subsequent increase in moral disengagement across the study period. Conclusions Head injuries may compromise expected changes in moral disengagement via neuropsychological deficits in brain regions that are implicated in moral decisionmaking. A continued investigation of this link would inform both criminological theory and intervention programming. Keywords Brain injury. Moral disengagement. Acquired neuropsychological deficits In April 2013, President Obama announced the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative (Mott et al. 2018; National Institutes of Health 2014). This ambitious project is aimed at understanding virtually all aspects of neurological activity and related processes including memory,

Changes in Jail Admissions Before and After Traumatic Brain Injury

“…Second, the current study examines a jail cohort. This extension of previous research is important, as few studies have systematically examined TBI within jail populations (Glover et al, 2018;Slaughter et al, 2003), instead focusing on prisons (Farrer & Hedges, 2011) or specific at-risk samples (Schwartz, 2019;Schwartz et al, 2017Schwartz et al, , 2020. Important differences between jail and prison populations have been previously documented , indicating that findings from the existing literature may not directly map onto other incarcerated populations.…”

“…Such studies typically report increases in behavior problems or criminal justice contact after sustaining a TBI, or a greater concentration of behavior problems among those who have sustained a TBI compared to those who have not Jackson et al, 2017;Ray & Richardson, 2017;Sariaslan, Lichtenstein, et al, 2016;Sariaslan, Sharp, et al, 2016;Schwartz et al, 2017Schwartz et al, , 2019. A smaller number of studies have reported increases in behavior problems and criminal justice contact stemming from within-individual changes in TBI over time (Schwartz, 2019;Schwartz et al, 2018Schwartz et al, , 2020. While these studies provide preliminary support for TBI as a causal influence, they do not effectively examine changes in criminal justice contact as a function of the timing of TBI, as they fail to consider prior contacts in a detailed manner.…”

Childhood Head Injury as an Acquired Neuropsychological Risk Factor for Adolescent Delinquency

“…Executive function deficits, especially increased impulsivity and aggression, are often implicated in criminal behavior, which provides a potential link between HI and criminal behavior (Moffitt 1993; Moffitt and Caspi 2001; Perron and Howard 2008; Vaughn et al 2014). Other deficits have been proposed, such as emotion regulation and moral reasoning, both of which can be impacted by the experience of an HI (Eslinger et al 2004; Schwartz, Fitter, and Jodis 2020; Tonks et al 2009)…”

Changes in Jail Admissions Before and After Traumatic Brain Injury

“…Such studies typically report increases in behavior problems or criminal justice contact after sustaining a TBI, or a greater concentration of behavior problems among those who have sustained a TBI compared to those who have not Jackson et al, 2017;Ray & Richardson, 2017;Sariaslan, Lichtenstein, et al, 2016;Sariaslan, Sharp, et al, 2016;Schwartz et al, 2017Schwartz et al, , 2019. A smaller number of studies have reported increases in behavior problems and criminal justice contact stemming from withinindividual changes in TBI over time (Schwartz, 2019;Schwartz et al, 2018Schwartz et al, , 2020. While these studies provide preliminary support for TBI as a causal influence, they do not effectively examine changes in criminal justice contact as a function of the timing of TBI, as they fail to consider prior contacts in a detailed manner.…”

“…Second, the current study examines a jail cohort. This extension of previous research is important, as few studies have systematically examined TBI within jail populations (Glover et al, 2018;Slaughter et al, 2003), instead focusing on prisons (Farrer & Hedges, 2011) or specific at-risk samples (Schwartz, 2019;Schwartz et al, 2017Schwartz et al, , 2020. Without question, jail and prison populations have some overlap, as virtually all individuals are held in jails prior being transferred to prison.…”