title: Childhood maltreatment and aggressive behaviour in violent offenders with psychopathy.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To document experiences of childhood maltreatment among violent offenders with antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) distinguishing between those with and without the syndrome of psychopathy (+P and -P), and to determine whether maltreatment is associated with proactive and reactive aggression.
  
  
  METHODS
  The sample included 10 violent offenders with ASPD+P, 15 violent offenders with ASPD-P, and 15 non offenders. All participants completed interviews with the same forensic psychiatrist focusing on physical, sexual, and emotional abuse prior to age 18 using the Early Trauma Inventory. Aggression was assessed using the Reactive-Proactive Questionnaire.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Violent offenders with ASPD+P reported significantly more severe childhood physical abuse, but not more sexual or emotional abuse, than violent offenders with ASPD-P and non offenders. Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) scores, but not childhood physical abuse, were associated with proactive aggression. Childhood physical abuse was associated with reactive aggression, as was an interaction term indicating that when both PCL-R scores and childhood physical abuse were high, so was reactive aggression.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Among violent offenders, PCL-R scores were positively associated with proactive aggression, while experiences of childhood maltreatment were not. This finding concurs with previous studies of children and adults and suggests that proactive aggression may be a behavioural marker of psychopathic traits. By contrast, childhood physical abuse was associated with reactive aggression, even among violent offenders with high PCL-R scores. This latter finding suggests a strong influence of childhood physical abuse on the development of reactive aggression that persists over the lifespan.
authors: Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario. nathan.kolla@mail.utoronto.ca
authors: Nathan J
authors: NJ
authors: Kolla
authors: Charlotte
authors: C
authors: Malcolm
authors: Stephen
authors: S
authors: Attard
authors: Tamara
authors: T
authors: Arenovich
authors: Nigel
authors: N
authors: Blackwood
authors: Sheilagh
authors: S
authors: Hodgins
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000374:Aggression / Q000523:psychology*; D000987:Antisocial Personality Disorder / Q000145:classification / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D002649:Child Abuse / Q000523:psychology*; D002650:Child Abuse, Sexual / Q000523:psychology; D057237:Criminals / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014754:Violence / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: antisocial personality disorder; childhood maltreatment; proactive aggression; reactive aggression; violent offending