Regulation Features in Individuals with Personality Disorders and Accentuated Personality Traits Who Committed Aggressive and Violent Crimes
Shekhovtsova E.S., Bulygina V.G. Regulation features in individuals with personality disorders and accentuated personality traits who committed aggressive and violent crimes. Penitentiary Science, 2020, vol. 14, no. 4 (52), pp. 514–523. DOI 10.46741/2686-9764-2020-14-4-581-588.
The paper investigates individual psychological features of self-regulation in people with personality disorders and accentuated personality traits. Our goal is to specify the data on regulation disorders taking into account the nature of committed offences so as to substantiate the validity of expert conclusions, promote individualization in punishment, and build models for secondary psychological prevention. We survey 134 men including 94 individuals with personality disorders, 20 individuals with accentuated personality traits and 20 individuals without mental disorders. We use a set of methodological tools to assess the extent of self-control deficiency); the set includes J. Kagan’s Matching Familiar Figures Test, situation analysis, a new questionnaire for tolerance toward uncertainty, J. Stroop’s Color and Word Test, behavioral self-regulation style. We carry out statistical processing of the data with the help of descriptive statistics method, frequency analysis, an independent samples t-test, the Mann–Whitney U-test, and the Kruskal-Wallis test to compare three independent samples. We have found out that regulation disorders in people with personality disorders who committed violent crimes are associated with the ability to predict the consequences adequately and find socially acceptable ways to resolve problem situations. We show that when an individual has to deal with information shortage,contradictory information, perceptual interference or increased emotional intensity of the situationthe probability of disorders in their conscious regulation of behavior increases significantly. Accordingly, to address the tasks of penal science and practice, we consider it expedient to use the indicators identified in the course of our present research, because they can be not only predictors of behavioral dysregulation and aggressive responses, but also targets for psychological therapy.
Keywords: self-regulation; personality disorders; accentuated personality traits; situation analysis; type of offence
2. Gorinov V.V. Personality disorders: modern classifications, diagnostics and features of expert assessment. In: Vandysh
V.V. (Ed.) Sudebnaya psikhiatriya. Aktual’nye problemy [Forensic psychiatry. Topical issues]. Moscow: FGBU “NMITs PN
im. V.P. Serbskogo” Minzdrava Rossii, 2018. Issue 15. Pp. 50-63. (In Russ.).
3. Kudryavtsev I.A., Lapshina E.N. Psychological mechanisms and effects of character pathology influence on selfregulation of socially dangerous actions. Rossiiskii psikhiatricheskii zhurnal=Russian Journal of Psychiatry, 2008, no. 3,
pp. 29–35. (In Russ.).
4. Lapshina E.N. Osobennosti samoregulyatsii lits, priznannykh ogranichenno vmenyaemymi: dis. ... kand. psikhol. nauk
[Features of self-regulation of individuals found partially sane: Candidate of Sciences (Psychology) dissertation]. Moscow:
FGU “GNTsSSP im. V.P. Serbskogo”, 2006. 265 p.
5. Makushkin E.V., Mokhon’ko A.R., Mugantseva L.A. Forensic psychiatric expert service of the Russian Federation in 2018
(based on the materials of the industry statistical reporting of the Ministry of Health of Russia). Psikhicheskoe zdorov’e =
Mental Health, 2019, no. 7, pp. 3-15. (In Russ.).
6. Savina O.F., Makushkin E.V., Morozova M.V. The algorithm of forensic expert study of the dysregulation of activity in
criminal situation in persons with mental disorders. Rossiiskii psikhiatricheskii zhurnal=Russian Journal of Psychiatry, 2018,
no. 1, pp. 31-42. (In Russ.).
7. Safuanov F.S. Psikhologiya kriminal’noi agressii [Psychology of criminal aggression]. Moscow: Smysl, 2003. 300 p.
8. Safuanov F.S., Kalashnikova A.S., Tsar’kov A.E. Clinical and psychological drivers of criminal aggression. Psikhologiya
i pravo=Psychology and Law, 2017, vol. 7, no. 4, pp. 44–58. doi:10.17759/psylaw.2017070405. (In Russ.).
9. Spasennikov B.A Clinical criminologic analysis of personality disorders of the convicted. Kriminologicheskii zhurnal
Baikal’skogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta ekonomiki i prava = Criminology Journal of Baikal National University of Economics and Law, 2014, no. 2, pp. 33-40. (In Russ.).
10. Steshich E.S. Character accentuations and criminal behavior (according to the study of prisoners convicted of intentional killing or reckless killing). Psikhopedagogika v pravookhranitel’nykh organakh = Psychopedagogy in Law Enforcement, 2018, no. 1 (72), pp. 29-35. (In Russ.).
11. Hare R.D., Neumann C.S. Psychopathy: assessment and forensic implications. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 2009,
vol. 54, pp. 791–802.
12. Skeem J.L., Cooke D.J. Is criminal behavior a central component of psychopathy? Conceptual directions for resolving
the debate. Psychological Assessment, 2010, vol. 22 (2), pp. 433–445.