Psychology ETDs

Publication Date

Summer 7-9-2019

Abstract

Juvenile delinquency poses a severe cost to society. Adolescent offenders who are more likely to recidivate, including youth scoring higher on measures of psychopathic traits, and non- psychopathic life-course persistent offenders, are characterized by cognitive control deficits which may increase their propensity towards future recidivism. In this dissertation, we found that youth scoring high on psychopathic traits exhibited increased functional connectivity during response inhibition and reduced functional connectivity during error-related processing, and reduced structural integrity in the inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus and uncinate fasciculus, compared to youth scoring low on psychopathic traits. In addition, we found error-related processing deficits and reduced structural integrity of the corticospinal tract were predictive of future recidivism in samples of incarcerated adolescent male offenders. The results of this dissertation help extend previous research by identifying novel deficits characteristic of youth with elevated psychopathic traits and predictive of future recidivism in potential life-course persistent antisocial adolescent offenders.

Degree Name

Psychology

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Department Name

Psychology

First Committee Member (Chair)

Kent Kiehl

Second Committee Member

Vincent Clark

Third Committee Member

Brandi Fink

Fourth Committee Member

Eric Claus

Fifth Committee Member

Jeremy Hogeveen

Language

English

Keywords

juvenile delinquency; functional magnetic resonance imaging; event-related potentials; diffusion tensor imaging; prediction

Document Type

Dissertation

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