The question of maladjustment of individuals with speech defects and its subsequent manifestation is the basic issue of this thesis. The study was conducted to answer the question: "What is the incidence of speech defects among juveniles exhibiting antisocial aggressive behavior?"

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Antisocial behavior, both criminal and noncriminal, is a prominent yet poorly understood public health concern. Research on antisocial behavior typically focuses on either individual or environmental risk factors, rarely integrating risks across levels of analysis. Although low objective SES is clearly associated with antisocial behavior, the reasons why are unclear. Sociological theories suggest this relationship is due to neighborhood and environmental characteristics that create social disorganization and reduce informal social controls in the community. On the other hand, psychological theories suggest that elevated levels of psychological distress and psychopathic traits may influence individual risk for antisocial behavior. The purpose of this study was to integrate sociological and psychological models to examine how certain individual and environmental risk factors intersect in predicting antisocial behavior. In a demographically diverse adult male sample (N = 462), environmental (neighborhood distress) and individual (psychological distress) risk factors each mediated the SES – antisocial behavior relationship (as predicted), although findings depended on which definition of SES was used (objective versus subjective). In addition, psychopathic dimensions (specifically, meanness and disinhibition) were observed to exacerbate the effects of neighborhood and psychological distress on antisocial behavior, as hypothesized. Supplemental analyses also considered index variables comprising neighborhood disadvantage. Overall, results of this study help inform psychological and sociological theories of antisocial behavior, and may assist in clarifying potential neighborhood- and individual-level foci for interventions to prevent and reduce antisocial behavior in the community. / Ph. D.

Criminal behavior results in negative, costly consequences for both individuals and society at large. Therefore, researchers have worked to identify variables that predict recidivism, or recurrence of crime. The variables with the strongest predictive power include criminal thinking, personality traits, antisocial peers, and family difficulties, among others. In addition, policy makers and stakeholders are creating interventions which target criminal thinking, to reduce criminal thinking and hopefully reduce future crime. However, little is known about measuring criminal thinking in community youth for the purposes of early intervention and prevention of future behavior problems. Therefore, this study examined a measure of criminal thinking in community youth to examine item-level and measure validity. It also sought to examine if criminal thinking acts as a mediator between other risk factors and subsequent behavior problems. Although some items may need to be revised, results suggested generally good validity for the total score. This study also supports the stability of criminal thinking in community youth, and thus could be used as a measure of change. Finally, results suggest that criminal thinking mediates the relationships between antisocial friends and parenting styles in predicting reactive aggression. The results of the item-level analysis of this study highlight the similarities between psychopathy and criminal thinking. Questions also arise about the relationship between criminal thinking in community youth and more transdiagnostic concepts, such as emotion regulation problems. Overall, criminal thinking appears to be a viable target for assessment and intervention in community youth. / Doctor of Philosophy / Researchers seeking to reduce crime, because of its negative effects on society, have identified some features of a person and situations that are closely related to a person committing future crimes. Specifically, criminals tend to think in certain ways that promote crime, called criminal thinking styles. If those thinking styles are changed, then people may be less likely to commit future crimes. However, the field does not know if these criminal thinking styles are the same for youth in the community. Therefore, this study examined a measure of criminal thinking in community youth. Results show that the measure seems to work appropriately in community youth. Although not all items are the best for these youth, overall, the measure works well in predicting behavior problems, as expected. The measure also shows that criminal thinking in youth generally stays the same over time. Finally, this study shows that some features of youth which predict behavior problems are related to behavior problems because of the presence of criminal thinking. This study shows that a measure of criminal thinking, originally created for use in a justice-involved adult population, can also be used with community youth. It may then be used to assess youth who are on the verge of getting into trouble for criminal thinking styles. Interventions could use this measure to see if the criminal thinking styles are being reduced. Finally, because criminal thinking explains the relationship between other personal factors and behavior problems, interventions can focus on just criminal thinking, and not all the other factors, as a way to reduce future behavior problems.

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Traditional conceptualizations of psychopathy highlight the importance of affective features of the syndrome in perpetuating social deviance. However, little research has directly investigated the callousness that psychopathic offenders display toward society and their victims. The current study investigated the roles of empathy and alexithymia in psychopathy among male and female incarcerated offenders, particularly in distinguishing psychopathy from antisocial personality disorder. Gender differences were also investigated. Regarding empathy, as predicted, group differences were largest between psychopathic and non-psychopathic offenders; no reliable differences emerged between psychopathic and APD-only offenders. In contrast, alexithymia robustly distinguished between offenders with prominent psychopathic traits, those with only APD, and those with neither condition. Psychopathic females unexpectedly exhibited slightly higher levels of alexithymia than their male counterparts, while empathic deficits were relatively consistent across genders. These findings are discussed in terms of improving assessment methods for the accurate identification and treatment of offenders with prominent psychopathic features.

La violencia y la criminalidad son fenómenos preocupantes dentro de la realidad peruana. Ésto se evidencia en el creciente número de delitos, y el aumento de la población penitenciaria. En este contexto, es necesario contar con instrumentos confiables capaces de medir patologías de la personalidad relacionadas con la conducta antisocial. El presente estudio instrumental tiene como objetivo analizar las propiedades psicométricas de Validez Interna y Confiabilidad de la escala de Trastorno Antisocial de la Personalidad del Inventario Clínico Multiaxial de Millon (MCMI-III). La muestra final estuvo compuesta por 66 jóvenes adultos varones (M=25.44; DE=3.51) recluidos en un establecimiento penitenciario de la ciudad de Lima. El análisis de confiabilidad a través del método de covariación conjunta Alpha de Cronbach arrojó un coeficiente de .729 para la escala de Trastorno Antisocial, mostrando un nivel de fiabilidad adecuado. Del mismo modo, se realizó el análisis de Validez Interna a través del método de correlaciones ítem-test (Pearson) el cual mostró índices de correlación que oscilaron entre .096 y .499 para el total de la escala (17 ítems). Asimismo, se llevó a cabo un análisis de discriminación de ítems con la finalidad de neutralizar aquellas variables con correlaciones inferiores a 0.3, para mejorar el índice de confiabilidad de la escala. La escala resultante estuvo compuesta por 10 ítems, cuyas correlaciones ítem-test oscilaron entre .352 y .527, elevando el coeficiente de confiabilidad a .775. Además, se estimó la prevalencia de sintomatología antisocial en la población, presentándose en el 27.3% de los casos. Estos hallazgos permitieron discutir los alcances y limitaciones de la escala en lo que respecta a la medición del constructo. / Two of the major problems within the Peruvian reality are violence and crime. The evidence is the increasing number of felonies and the rising of the prison population. In this context, it is necessary to have reliable tools to measure the personality pathology related to antisocial behavior. This instrumental study aims to analyze the psychometric properties of Internal Validity and Reliability of the Scale of Antisocial Personality Disorder in the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI-III). The final sample was taken from 66 young adult male inmates (M=25.44; DE=3.51) from a prison in the city of Lima. Reliability analysis through the joint covariance method yielded a Cronbach's Alpha coefficient of .729 for Antisocial Disorder Scale, showing an appropriate level of reliability. In turn, analysis of internal validity through correlations item-tests (Pearson) showed correlation coefficients ranging between .096 and .499 for the scale of 17 items. In addition, a removing items process is conducted to promote the reliability of the scale. The Resulting scale consisted of 10 items, whose item-test correlations ranged between .352 and .527, raising the reliability coefficient of .775. Further more, the prevalence of antisocial symptoms in the population, appearing in 27.3% of cases was estimated. These results let on to discuss the scope and limitations of the Scale of Antisocial Personality Disorder of the MCMI-III with regard to the measurement of the antisocial construct. / Tesis

The objective of this study was to explore the attitudes toward antisocial personality disorder among clinicians. The researcher created a 15 question survey to interview clinicians in hopes of eliciting information about their attitudes toward this population. The survey consisted of seven open ended questions and eight Likert scale questions. The researcher analyzed the data by transcribing the interviews and looking for common themes among the responses. Likert scale questions were tallied and compared in SPSS to determine the spread of the answers. The results of the study showed there are negative attitudes among clinicians currently in direct treatment settings; attitudes were more neutral among clinicians who are currently not involved in direct practice. In applying the theory of reasoned action it is suggested clinicians in direct practice who hold negative views display behaviors that affect the treatment process and outcome. The researcher’s recommendation for future study is to explore the attitudes of other helping professionals in comparison to social work practitioners.