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Searching for a Better Understanding of Mentally-Disordered Perpetrators of Violent Crime |
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Two New Computer Labs in McCormack Hall: Students Networked for Success |
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The question of mental disorder and violence has long captured our imaginations, with moral philosophers no less than Aristotle distinguishing "people of weak will who do wrong against their wishes and intentions from vicious people who do wrong contently and with conviction." So writes Professor Paul Nestor of the Psychology Department in a recent article titled "Competence to stand trial: A Neuropsychological Inquiry."
Nestor focuses his research on developing a descriptive taxonomy of mentally disordered offenders-the Aristotelian group who act without criminal intention.However, he is quick to emphasize, "From the agitated street person to the erudite "Unabomber," the mentally disordered among us are too often unfairly portrayed and stigmatized as violent. Yet while more are indeed no more violent than the rest of society, a subset of mentally disordered persons do show elevated risk of criminal violence."
Now considered a public health problem, these offenders are estimated to be responsible for five percent of all homicides in the United States, fifteen percent in England, and eighteen percent in Sweden. Nestor believes that by examining the interaction between the nature of the criminal act and the characteristics of the mental disorder, violence may not only be prevented, but public policy will be better refined to distinguish those who long ago were considered "mad" from those seen as "bad."
Using subjects from Bridgewater State Hospital, the only state hospital designated as a maximum security facility in Massachusetts, Nestor has developed four categories of mentally disordered offenders. People in these categories are 1) psychotic organized, 2) psychotic disorganized, 3) substance abusers/depressed/suicidal, or 4) psychopathic. Nestor is especially interested in distinguishing between the psychotic offender and the psychopathic offender, the former being the truly mentally ill person and the latter being the most prevalent. Nestor states, "The symptoms of psychosis that have been linked to violence are typically seen as acute and fleeting. These include intense paranoia related to perceived imminent personal threat or feelings and thoughts of the self or others being under some kind of alien control." Perpetrators who commit violent crimes while in such states therefore believe themselves to be acting in self-defense, "a form of psychotic self-defense that represents a truly irrational criminal motive," Nestor adds.
Regarding psychopathy Nestor adds, "Unlike psychosis, it is seen as an enduring and malignant personality syndrome characterized by callousness, deceit, emotional shallowness, manipulation, social deviance, and impulsivity." This disorder is related to antisocial personality disorder, which serial killer Ted Bundy was diagnosed with, and is not considered a mental illness as the offender kills for personal satisfaction, in an often premeditated and instrumental way. Typically, only offenders diagnosed with psychosis are considered appropriate insanity plea cases. And only a very small percentage will be acquitted, usually in the most severe of these cases in which rationality, intentionality or reality testing might be substantially eroded by serious mental illness.
The fact that there are far more male than female psychopaths who commit violent acts has led Nestor to investigate possible neurohormonal components of psychopathy. His research has shown that these male offenders have better spatial than verbal abilities, with a remarkable capacity to size up novel social situations on one hand, but an apparently underdeveloped social conscience on the other. Nestor looks to the hormone testosterone for possible answers. He believes that the differential gender distribution of testosterone could be linked to the over-representation of male psychopathy. "Supporting evidence from both animal and human studies has demonstrated that variations in testosterone levels correspond to changes in the expression of a number of behaviors relevant to psychopathy, including aggression, social dominance, reading abilities, and spatial cognition." The link is tantalizing. A better understanding of the neurobiological mechanisms of psychopathy could lead to more effective therapies for the disorder.
Nestor's research is unique in that previous studies have investigated the neurophysiological and psychophysiological components of psychoticism and psychopathy independently, but few if any have directly compared these conditions. In doing so, Nestor moves closer to establishing definitive models of these disorders that will help both the justice system and its penal institutions better understand and treat mentally disordered violent offenders according to the nature of their disorders and the characteristics of their offenses.