The intergenerational cycle of criminality--association with psychopathy.
Preventive interventions early in life are likely to lower the risk of intergenerational transmission of criminal behavior. We investigated if psychopathy among homicidal offenders is associated with criminal offending among the offenders' offspring. The basic sample consisted of consecutive Finnish homicide offenders (during 1995-2004) who had been subjected to a forensic psychiatric examination and rated for a file-based PCL-R, and their offspring. Criminal behavior among both genders of the offspring was more common than in the general population. In general, the offspring's crimes against others (e.g., threat, intimidation, deprivation of freedom, breach of domicile) were associated with their parent's psychopathy. A grandfather's major mental disorder was associated with a high rate of crime committed by the offspring. Especially, the sons of male psychopathic homicidal offenders had the highest rate of committing crimes, which was often expressed as vandalism. However, both genders of offspring seem to require special preventive programs to ameliorate these problems.
Repo-Tiihonen
Eila
E
Department of Forensic Psychiatry, University of Kuopio, Niuvanniemi Hospital, FI-70240 Kuopio, Finland. eila.tiihonen@niuva.fi
Tiihonen
Jari
J
Lindberg
Nina
N
Weizmann-Henelius
Ghitta
G
Putkonen
Hanna
H
Häkkänen
Helinä
H
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000453:epidemiology; D000987:Antisocial Personality Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D003415:Crime; D003417:Criminal Psychology; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland / Q000453:epidemiology; D005555:Forensic Psychiatry; D006708:Homicide / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D016901:Intergenerational Relations; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology; D012307:Risk Factors