Thus, with relevance to forensic setting to criminal investigation, treatment and recidivism in psychopathy is the distinction drawn certain forms of violence. In general, proactive violence occur when the injury to a person is committed secondary to the acquisition of some other external goal in cases violence occur as individual has planned efforts to obtain finances’. (2002, 2005) In addition, ‘there assessed one hundred six violent and non-violent offenders from security forensic capability to inspect whether violent offenders who committed acts of active, goal-directed aggression could be illustrious from those who stanch reactive anger in response to irritation’. (1996;2005 ) There also defines the active violence as a goal-driven and with required planning without provocation like for example, towards a stranger and that, reactive violence refers to the absence of planning as well as goals and have involved interpersonal quarrel with the injured party (1996, 2005 ). The reactive violence is considered the essential figure of criminal violence wherein the violence could be seen as marker for developing such pathological expansion and its ability to employ violence for such directed purposes (1996; 1998 ; 2005).
Aside, there was an anticipated that the computer would be a powerful tool to simulate theories of perception, as well as providing a metaphor for the processes of perception and cognition themselves. (1996; 2005 ) The move away from reliance to present sine wave and other simple patterns facilitated the increasing use of more naturalistic patterns, as well as those which can be constructed and manipulated in controlled ways. Amicably, computer development has enabled the better recording of eye movements and the linkage of eye movements to changes in display features, allowing a number of groups to conduct ingenious experiments into the control of eye movements in reading ( 2005 ). The use of converging evidence from a wide range of different methodological sources is now a widespread feature of contemporary cognitive neuropsychology and gets over many of the problems of deducing normal functions from observation of single cases of brain damage ( 1999).
Moreover, there is strong evidence for specialization of areas within monkey and human cortex for processing faces and neuropsychological investigations have shown that brain injury can spare, face processing abilities (1992) However, an important contribution of British researchers in particular has been to emphasize that the face is used for many different social purposes and to furnish evidence that these different uses made of facial information may be handled by dis tinct neurological pathways ( 1993). Over the past decade, there have been enormous advances in the sophistication and sensitivity of the methods used to assess the physical and behavioral effects that brain injuries have on people. These tools provide patients and their attorneys with powerful evidence to help prove causation and damages in court. Yet despite the severity of the impairment caused by brain injury, the frequency of its occurrence, and the existence of methodologies for its assessment, closed head injury cases are often considered the plaintiff lawyer’s nightmare. ( 2005)
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
METHOD
PARTICIPANTS
The participants of the research study were 25 men who were incarcerated in New South Wales. The participants were housed in the Metropolitan Special Programs Centre, Long Bay Correctional Centre after being referred to the Violent Offender Therapeutic Program. Inmates can request entry into the VOTP or can be referred by psychologists due either to a history of violence pre-sentence or while incarcerated. It was explained that participation in the research was voluntary and would not affect individual status or their record with the institution. Participants did not receive any financial reward or any other gain for their participation in the research. ( 2005)
Every participant was presented with a participant information sheet and asked to sign their consent to take part in the research after the method and purpose was explained. Four from the original pool of 30 inmates declared that they preferred not to take part in the research and one transferred before testing could commence, giving a sample of N = 25. The mean age of the participants was 33.6 years with ranges from 23 to 55 years old. The mean age for the reactive group (N = 12) was 31.92 years with range from 23 to 43 years and the mean age for the instrumental group (N = 13) was 35.15 years from a range of 25 to 55 years. (2005)
TOOLS/MATERIALS
Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (1999)
The WASI was used as it is a standardised, normed, and validated short form of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale. It also provided a reliable and valid estimate of verbal, performance and general intellectual functioning. The WASI measures several facets of intelligence, such as verbal knowledge, visual information processing, spatial and nonverbal reasoning, and crystallised and fluid intelligence. (2005)
The WASI consists of certain sub-tests Vocabulary, Block Design, Similarities and Matrix Reasoning (1999): Vocabulary measures expressive vocabulary, verbal knowledge and fund of information. For this sub-test, participants were required to define words that are orally presented as the block Design measures spatial visualisation, visual-motor coordination, abstract conceptualisation and perceptual organisation by requiring participants to replicate modelled patterns within a specified time by using two-colour cube patterns. Similarities measures verbal concept formation, abstract reasoning ability, and general intellectual ability. (2005) For this measure a pair of words was presented orally and participants asked to explain the similarity between the object or concept that the two words represented. Matrix Reasoning measures nonverbal fluid reasoning by requiring participants to complete a missing portion of an abstract, gridded pattern by indicating the correct completed pattern from five possible choices.
The D-KEFS is a set of nine standardised tests for assessing executive functions in children and adults. The nine tests measure a range of verbal and non-verbal executive functions, with each test designed to stand alone or be administered with others from the battery. Each of the nine tests was standardised on over 1700 children and adults aged 9 to 89 years. The Verbal Fluency Test is comprised of three conditions, letter fluency, category fluency and category-switching. In the letter fluency condition, the participant is asked to name in 60 seconds as many words as they can that begin with a specified letter over three trials (F, then S then A) (2005). In category fluency the participant is asked to say in two trials of 60 seconds as many words as they can that belong to a designated category. In the category switching component, participants are asked to alternate between saying words from two semantic categories as quickly as possible in 60 seconds. In the first the participant is presented with rows of boxes each containing an array of filled dots. The participant is given 60 seconds and asked to connect the dots in different designs using four straight lines. In the second condition, each response box has five filled and five empty dots. ( 2005)
The participant is asked to inhibit connecting the filled dots and connect the empty dots, again given 60 seconds to create as many different four line designs as they can. The final condition is the switching condition. Each response square has five filled and five empty dots and the participant is asked draw different designs in 60 seconds using four straight lines and alternating between empty and filled dots as the Design Fluency task has proven sensitive to right frontal lobe impairment.
MEASURES AND PROCEDURES
The characteristics of the violence perpetrated by the offenders were coded on the basis of pertinent information from their clinical interview. Only the most recent violence was taken into consideration. The initial rating was performed by the principal investigator and the inter-rater reliability undertaken by a Senior Forensic Psychologist in the Violent Offender Therapeutic Program. The second rater was not aware of the principal investigator’s ratings. Generally it would be clear for purely reactive violence that there was no apparent goal other than to physically harm the victim following a verbal altercation. (2005) For example an argument in a bar that ended in a physical fight, perhaps between two people known to each other. There should be no evidence of any particular situational provocation. For example, where a person planned and carried out violence against another purpose to gain drugs, money or revenge and was not particularly emotionally aroused when they carried out the act. Participants were rated as primarily reactive if they met either of the criteria for 1 or 2 and primarily instrumental if they met criteria for either 3 or 4. (2005) The technique comprises 8 sets of hot-target pictures of presumed collaborative suspects or crime scene locations. The test is administered in eight minutes to record corroborative forensic evidence and future investigative intelligence data. Statistical analysis programmed into robust software enables instant comparison between high value target suspect picture recognition and neutral stimuli responses. (2005) Test-retest data is obtained by changing the order of implanted target recognition pictures, without the subject’s knowledge. Although neuropsychology is broadly defined as the study of the brain and behavior, much effort in this field is directed toward the clinical measurement of the cognitive and behavioral manifestations of normal and abnormal brain function. (2005) These measurements are based on the knowledge that the brain is topographically organized so different cognitive functions are controlled by anatomically distinct areas and systems. Damage localized to one or a few areas disturbs certain cognitive functions while functions controlled by uninjured parts of the brain continue to operate normally. Standardized testing of individual functions can identify normal and impaired cognitive processes and assess the degree of impairment. (2005)
CHAPTER FOUR
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
The researchers identified six neuropsychological measures that were viewed as sensitive to ventromedial dysfunction. Two of these tests were the Stroop Color Word Test and the Controlled Oral Word Association Test. The first hypothesis of the current research is that the research population of violent offenders will exhibit evidence of impaired performance on neuropsychological measures sensitive to executive dysfunction. Accurate diagnosis of possible neurological impairment could have important implications in treatment settings and in the assessment of future recidivism. It is further hypothesized that reactive violent offenders will perform poorly on neuropsychological measures considered to be sensitive to executive dysfunction. By contrast, it is hypothesized that instrumental violent offenders will return significantly higher scores on these tests than reactive violent offenders. The research will test this hypothesis using a structured clinical interview to differentiate offenders into two groups based on offence characteristics, primarily reactive violence and primarily instrumental violence ( 2001).
NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT
The tests used to evaluate cognition neuropsychological tests are distinguished from psychological tests in that the former measure functions that are accepted by the neuroscientific community as basic cognitive manifestations of brain functioning language, attention, memory, executive functioning, fine motor processes and sensory perception. In contrast, psychological tests evaluate a variety of complex behavioral and social variables, such as emotional state, social adjustment, and scholastic achievement. To pass legal muster, a neuropsychological test must satisfy generally accepted scientific standards of validity and reliability. A test’s validity relates to its ability to measure the desired function while its reliability corresponds to the test’s capability to measure this function every time the test is given. In addition, the baseline population that is used both to standardize the test and provide the norms for comparison must be appropriate.
DATA RESULTS
Moreover, of the 25 participants in this research, 12 (48 percent) were rated as primarily reactive in their offence type while 13 (52 percent) participants were rated as primarily instrumental in their offence type. The inter-rater reliability check was conducted on 10 of the 25 participants chosen at random for dual coding by the principal researcher and Senior Forensic Psychologist. Calculating Cohen’s Kappa revealed an excellent level of agreement between the two raters for classifying the offenders as primarily reactive or primarily instrumental in their offence type, kappa = 0.776, p < .05 (90 percent confidence interval, .650-.880). As the kappa is positive, the agreement between the raters is positive. The total sample population (N = 25) was separated into primarily reactive (n = 12) and primarily instrumental (n = 13) offence type as described above. Each group was then examined on number of choices from the disadvantageous decks (A and B) and then from the advantageous decks (C and D). Results for the first comparison (reactive vs. instrumental on disadvantageous decks A and B) revealed the reactive mean score of 61.25 (SD 19.391) and an instrumental mean score of 41.077 (SD 16.034). For the following comparison (reactive vs. instrumental on advantageous decks C and D), the reactive mean score was 39.250 (SD 18.864) and the instrumental mean score equal to 58.923 (SD 16.034).
There was multivariate 2 x 2 analysis of variance (MANOVA) with repeated measures on decks revealed a significant interaction for group by deck; F(1, 23) = 8.02, p < .009. A one-way ANOVA revealed that the difference between the normal and EVR type groups was highly significant, F(1,50) = 74.8, p < .001. The present study makes additional comparisons in comparing the reactive and instrumental groups to the normal sample. Figure 2 reveals that the instrumental group performed somewhat advantageously (Mean = 17, SD 32.07), although the group did not choose as advantageously as the normal controls (Mean = 38, SD 2.67). The difference between the normal and instrumental group was significant, t = 3.02 (32), p < .005. (2005) When the reactive group mean from the present study was compared to the normal group mean, it appeared that the reactive group performed disadvantageously compared with the normal group and more like EVR and EVR-type. The difference between the reactive group and the normal group was highly significant, t = 7.25 (31), p < .0001. The WASI was administered to all 25 participants, who were then separated in primarily instrumental and primarily reactive groups as to their offence type.
The Full Scale IQ (FSIQ) mean score for the primarily reactive group was 95.833 (SD 10.302). The FSIQ mean score for the primarily instrumental group was 102.307 (SD 11.622). Levene’s Test for Equality of Variances was not significant (F = 1.089, p = .308). It was revealed by t test that there was no significant difference between the two groups on FSIQ (t = -1.469, p = .155 two-tailed). Furthermore, that there was no significant difference on FSIQ between either of the two groups and the normal population. The Performance IQ (PIQ) mean score for the primarily reactive group was 101.167 (SD 9.833) and for the primarily instrumental group 106.231 (SD 10.174). Levene’s Test for Equality of Variances was not significant (F = .046, p = .833). The difference between the group mean scores was not significant (t = -1.263, p = .219, two-tailed). The Verbal IQ (VIQ) mean score for the primarily reactive group was 91.167 (SD 11.792) and for the primarily instrumental group 98.231 (SD 15.433). Levene’s Test for Equality of Variances was not significant (F = 1.519, p = .230) and the difference between mean scores for the groups was not significant (t = -1.278, p = .214). However, the difference between the mean scores of the reactive group on VIQ and PIQ was statistically significant, t (22) = 2.26, p < .05. ( 2005) The mean score difference of 10 points was above the number required (8.51) for statistical significance at the .05 level for the age range 17 to 89.
The difference in VIQ and PIQ for the primarily instrumental group was not statistically significant. The mean scores, standard deviations and results of t tests of group differences on the D-KEFS-VF is within the 15 comparison scores of the D-KEFS-VF, those which measure higher-order executive functions were of particular interest. There was a significant difference in mean scores between the primarily reactive and primarily instrumental groups on four of the 15 comparison scores. The four comparison measures that revealed a significant mean score difference between the primarily reactive and primarily instrumental groups were Category Switching-Switching Accuracy (p < .005), Interval one Responses (p < .05), Set Loss (p < .05) and Percent Switching Accuracy (p < .005). The mean scores, standard deviations and results of t tests of group differences on the D-KEFS-DF of the 10 comparison scores of the D-KEFS-DF, those which measure repeated errors, set loss errors and switching accuracy were of particular interest. There were no significant mean score differences between the primarily reactive and primarily instrumental group on any of the D-KEFS-DF comparison measures, although one approached significance, p = .058. ( 2005) In comparison with the normal population, the instrumental groups were not significantly impaired on any of the measures of D-KEFS–DF, the reactive group means were below the normal population means on one measure, Primary Contrast, t (24) = 2.89, p < .01.
There was a significant difference in mean scores between the primarily reactive and primarily instrumental groups on five of the 12 comparison scores. The five comparison measures which revealed a significant mean score difference between the primarily reactive and primarily instrumental groups were Inhibition/Switching, p = .000, Primary Contrast 2, p < .05; Optional Contrast 1, p < .01, Optional Contrast 2, p < .006, and Error Analysis 2–Inhibition/Switching, p < .05. In comparison with the normal population, the instrumental group was significantly impaired on one of the measures of D-KEFS–CW; Error Analysis 1, t (24), 2.95,p = .007. The six measures which revealed impaired performance in the reactive group compared with the normal population measured higher-order executive functioning such as inhibiting responses, changing and maintaining set. ( 2005)
FINDINGS DISCUSSION
There says that ‘the evidence for the association between specifically violent criminal behaviour and frontal lobe dysfunction is weak at best’ (1989) is not supported by the results of this investigation into executive dysfunction in violent offenders. The results of this research clearly supported the first hypothesis that a sample of violent offenders would exhibit evidence of impaired performance on neuropsychological measures sensitive to executive dysfunction. (2005) The data gathered suggested that there were violent offenders in the sample who were significantly impaired on tests of executive function compared with the standardisation sample. While support for the first hypothesis is encouraging and supports earlier findings (1995; 1994; 1992; 2002; , 2002, 2005), it did not provide the depth of understanding required to inform adequate prediction of future dangerousness, assessment or treatment of individuals who commit violent crime.
The results indicated that on the first two conditions there was no significant difference between the two groups and also no significant difference between either of the groups and the standardisation sample. This would indicate that any differences between the groups or either group and the standardisation sample on the higher-order executive function conditions was not due to either a limited vocabulary or poor spelling skills. The ability to shift set is considered one of the functions of the frontal lobes. A deficit in this area may indicate impairment in the ability to constantly change response given the environmental demands faced by the individual. (2005) The primarily reactive group was significantly impaired on this measure compared with both the primarily instrumental group and the standardisation sample. The research found that this was the case for primarily reactive violent offenders who were significantly impaired on this measure compared with the primarily instrumental group. Rather, the result indicates that the primarily reactive group displayed an impaired capacity to maintain set when faced with multiple competing demands. The primary group did not display this impairment. One possible reason that there was only one rather than four significant differences between the primarily reactive group and the standardisation sample might be in the verbal capabilities of the primarily reactive group ( 2001).
The results indicated that the primarily reactive group sampled significantly more cards from the disadvantageous decks (A and B) compared with the primarily instrumental group. The primarily instrumental group sampled significantly more cards from the advantageous decks than the primarily reactive group as the result would appear to indicate that the primarily reactive group were significantly impaired on the test. (2005) Notably, while the primarily instrumental group performed more advantageously than the primarily reactive group, they were significantly impaired on the task compared with the normal sample. One possible explanation for this significant difference was that while the primarily instrumental group were able to see the future consequences of their actions, they were still enticed by the high-risk decks into making some risky choices. It is possible that that the primarily instrumental group understood the task and were able to make advantageous choices, but perhaps did not care about the consequences of choosing disadvantageously, thus significantly lowering their scores in comparison to the normal sample. Several studies have shown that patients with amygdala lesions show impaired aversive conditioning as do psychopathic individuals (1995;2002). These studies indicate that the amygdala was activated in neuro-imaging studies in response to sad or fearful images and that psychopathic individuals show impaired processing of these sad or fearful images. In turn, the individual is then unaffected by emotional distress in others, which enables them to carry out violent acts on others without emotional pain ( 2002) and that impulsive behaviour seen in psychopaths outside of the commission of serious crime’ may not reflect an inability to consider the consequences but rather may be a function of not caring to control or inhibit the behaviour’ ( 2002). However, the research had several weaknesses for one, it acknowledged that brain behaviour relationships are difficult to exclusively define based solely on neuropsychological testing. It is with a great degree of caution that any relationship between type of violence and neurological dysfunction is drawn and future research would be enhanced by the inclusion of neuro-imaging techniques. The research did examine neuropsychological dysfunction and did not take into account prevalent psycho-social factors such as alcohol and drug use and their effects. Assessment of violent offenders for treatment programs would benefit from examining executive function impairment and streaming those with such impairment and particularly reactive violent offences into specific, targeted treatment programs. While impaired executive function presents a therapeutic challenge for any clinician, it is not the case that individuals with such deficits are untreatable. Behaviourally based programs incorporating a ‘stop, think, do’ approach and insight and awareness training into the behavioural and personality manifestations of the impairment and assessment for and compliance with pharmacotherapy can have beneficial results with this population. (1992; 2002;2005,) Such programs teach the individual how to control their behaviour, while there suggests that these individuals do not care to control their behaviour and as such may not benefit from this type of treatment.
NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL TESTING
The most debilitating impairments in the majority of brain injury cases are problems of cognition memory and planning, rather than grossly disturbed movement, such as paralysis, or loss of sensation, such as blindness. Then, the cognitive disabilities are often termed invisible injuries. The job of the neuropsychologist is to give flesh and bone to the specter of a thinking disorder. By using objective and standardized assessment tests, the neuropsychologist can determine whether a cognitive impairment exists, what the problems are, their severity, and how they might affect the patient’s normal activities. The importance of an accurate neuropsychological assessment to the traumatic brain injury case cannot be over estimated. When structural abnormalities are noted, without neuropsychological testing it cannot be stated with assurance what the consequences would be or if, in fact, there would be any impairment at all. The testing also provides the treating physicians with important guidance and validation of treatment options and prognosis. (2005)
Finally, surveys have shown that while people generally are willing to believe that head injury can produce physical symptoms like headache and paralysis, they are much less likely to accept the possibility that head injury can induce problems in thinking and changes in personality. Neuropsychological testing can provide objective validation of these invisible injuries. Indeed, the assessment of the individual processes that function in cognition is the goal of neuropsychological assessment. Identifying the cognitive processes that are affected allows the expert to determine the likely impact the injury will have on the patient’s ability to perform routine activities of daily living as well as more intellectually demanding endeavors. However, a normal MRI does not rule out brain damage. These methods are much less sensitive to smaller lesions, such as the tearing of nerve fibers typical of closed head injury. They are also unable to identify brain areas that have become nonfunctional due to problems not associated with lesions, such as insufficient blood supply, lack of oxygen and toxic exposures. The real usefulness of a functional scan is its ability to provide information to the neuropsychologist before any assessment is initiated. Functional scans indicate what parts of the brain are abnormal and point the way to the neuropsychological tests most likely to determine if the abnormalities have resulted in behavioral impairments. For example, children are much more likely to be victims of violence than they are to be arrested for a violent crime. Minors experience significantly more violence than do adults (1994). More youngsters lose their lives to suicide than to youth-on-youth violence (1997).
The availability of guns has played a critical role in the increase in juvenile suicide and homicide (1995). Poverty disproportionately affects children and adolescents, with children under age six at higher risk for poverty than any other age group (1998). Being poor is associated with an array of physical and psychosocial problems, and the link between poverty and mental health problems is one of the best documented relationships in epidemiology (1986; 1990;1993). From this flows an argument for protection and prevention rather than the criminalization of youth. As research evidences pointed out that, the total number of juvenile arrests increased 13 percent during 1989 and 1993 and from 1983 to 1992, the number of juveniles arrested for a violent crime increased 47 percent ( 1995). People under age eighteen arrested for murder increased dramatically: 158 percent during the year 1985 and 1994 (1997).
FORENSIC APPRAISAL THROUGH ADOLESCENTS: ITS CRITERIA AND INDICATORS
Furthermore, it is precise that such forensic evaluation will have such attempts to apply scientific knowledge to a legal issue. There are many things that signal the need for a forensic evaluation with children. For example, when youngsters are arrested and interviewed by the police, issues surrounding Miranda rights can form the basis for an evaluation. In these cases, the minors may be referred by their attorney to ascertain if they could comprehend the questions or whether the interrogation methods resulted in a reliable confession. Furthermore, juvenile competence to stand trial must be determined. Attempts to transfer young offenders to criminal court may require a forensic evaluation of mental status and maturity, charged atmosphere, forensic evaluations may increasingly be needed to gauge dangerousness to self and others. Similarly, a mental health professional may be asked to evaluate criminal risk like for example in cases as to whether behavior and mental status suggest a transient or chronic offender profile. In addition, (1998) argued that a forensic assessment of a juvenile is indicated if any of the following factors are present: below age 12, diagnosis of or treatment for a psychological disorder, intellectual impairments and law enforcement observe problems with memory, orientation, and conception of reality.
Rapidly identifying suspected criminals, placing them into custody and reaching closure at the time of trial are urgent issues for law enforcement; citizens, business, government agencies and the legal community. Terrorists are believed to be cold-blooded murderers who do not reason or feel as we do in our shared sense of morality. Criminals are not a rose by any other name while murdering innocent people regardless of race or religion PAP technique for standard issue polygraphs is a non-verbal parlance-free weapon, sharpened as tool for truth detection targeting. The method is a refined complement to good forensic intelligence and grass roots police work at the local, national and international level. Suspects are exposed to a series of pictures as in a police identification line-up to distinguish deceptively big noses going almost out of joint. When compared with current polygraph interviewing methods, the innovation offers an improved if not superior technique to identify deliberate deception. There consider the method to be an imperative addition to the armamentarium in the war on terror and increasing crime rates as such cruel atrocities against humanity similar to those brutally perpetrated.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
SUMMARY
Neuropsychology implies one branch of psychology with imperative goals of understanding how brain works in its function and structure in terms of linking to certain psychology process and behaviors that can be overt in the sense as neuropsychology involve approaches that can be scientific in nature as the information shares imperative views in determining human cognition respectively. The rate of victims’ reporting of crimes has remained broadly stable since 1995, whereas the rate of recording of crimes by the police increased up to 2004, largely as a result of the introduction of the NCRS. However, latest figure shows decrease in the recording rate on the previous year. Recent results from audits however indicate that police recording standards have continued to improve during 2005. BCS and recorded crime have tracked each other quite well at the national level. There was a divergence in trends between the two series when the NCRS was introduced in April 2002, this appears to be settling down as of April 2004 as the trends have become closer.
‘The BCS showed that the number of other household thefts, thefts from the person and other thefts of personal property remained stable between 2004/05 and 2006. Police recorded crime showed a 2 percent fall in other thefts and handling stolen goods within the same period. Criminal damage remained stable between 2005 and 2006 as measured by the BCS. The police recorded a 1 percent fall in total criminal damage and a 5 percent decline in the number of arson offences between 2005 and 2006. There have been a variety of changes to the count of detections over recent years. Detection statistics are only one measure of police effectiveness, and it should be noted that detection rates can vary considerably depending on the type of crime and the manner in which a crime is brought to police attention. Not all crimes in which a suspect is identified will necessarily be reflected in the count of detected crimes. Conversely not all detections result in a charge/summons and a court appearance, but for those that do not, the police must still obtain evidence that they consider sufficient to charge and convict’. ( 2006)
Aside, ‘the ideals found in forensic neuropsychological evaluation has involved the application of neuropsychological judgment methods for certain appraisal of people or individuals that are occupied to the cases relating to criminal doings as well as public focused proceedings. Henceforth, such groups of neuropsychologists then, utilizes sets of tests in standard formation for assessing diverse characteristics of brain functioning like for instance, cognitive ability, planning as well as perception, sensory functioning, psychomotor skills also behavior and personality basics. Thus, the process of neuropsychology testing is useful because it is composed of good device for the detection of such delicate brain damage as it cannot possibly be apparent on customary neurological testing such as Computerized Tomography or the Magnetic Resonance Imaging. Then, fixed difference in stages of neuropsychological development can be huge along with less clinical application. The willpower of definite process that can be involved in crime rate is imperative and that reliability and validity of examination as well as testing are to be required for the appropriate sanction of the case analysis and its respected interpretation’. (2006)
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, the current research separated violent offenders into primarily instrumental and primarily reactive based on their offence characteristics. Each group was then administered a series of neuropsychological measures that were sensitive to executive function impairment. The results indicated that the primarily reactive group was significantly impaired on tasks that involved higher-order executive functions such as verbal inhibition, maintenance of set, cognitive flexibility and the ability to see future consequences. The primarily instrumental group were largely intact on executive function measures, although showed a tendency to be selectively impulsive depending on how important the task was judged to be. These findings led to the conclusions that primarily reactively violent offenders had difficulty controlling their behavior while primarily instrumental violent offenders could choose whether to control their behavior. In order to accurately assess and treat violent offenders, adequate assessment of type of violence and integrity of executive function is an important element to successful outcomes. Future research would benefit from separating violent offenders into three groups and examining the impact of drug and alcohol use at the time of offence.
The reason that forensic conclusions may differ from clinical conclusions is that they frequently require different assumptions in order to be credible. For example, a particular pattern of test scores, demographic characteristics, and historical events may lead a clinical neuropsychologist to conclude that a client has suffered a mild head injury in an automobile accident which could improve with cognitive rehabilitation. A forensic neuropsychologist might conclude, based on the same data, that the evidence does not indicate a mild head injury that can be attributed to the automobile accident. This difference in conclusions is due to the differing assumptions made by the clinical and forensic neuropsychologists in interpreting the relevant data. The forensic neuropsychologist assumes, based on current liability law, that the conclusion that the automobile accident induced cognitive problems requires evidence of a change in cognitive functioning after the accident compared with before the accident. If such comparative evidence is lacking, the presumption is that the current cognitive problems preexisted the automobile accident. In contrast, the clinical neuropsychologist requires only that the current cognitive problems be consistent with a mild head injury caused by an automobile accident. The conclusion of the forensic neuropsychologist is constrained by the legal rule that a defendant will not be assessed damages for an injury without evidence that an injury actually occurred. The conclusion of the clinical neuropsychologist is not constrained by this legal rule and therefore is still credible even though it appears to be contradictory.
RECOMMENDATIONS
There is the need for forensic neuropsychology to have useful assumptions in avoiding crime incidents within the British region through valid and reliable understanding of forensic neuropsychology in responding to better conceptual foundations and clinical practice as it is believed that forensic Neuropsychology presents in-depth knowledge about brain function and good techniques for the assessment of brain function in a legal context. It is also recommended that such neuropsychologists must exercise their responsibilities of performing independent neuropsychological examinations in striving hard to examine neuropsychological status objectively. Interpretation of results should ideally be made without preconceived ideas about the examinee and with proper attention to the potential effects of bias. There must be application of confidentiality as being required by law and that legal reporting requirements may include situations of danger to others and neglect of children or elderly.
The British Crime Survey must adhere to every single principle behind crime situations such as in Wales and in London and must integrate a comprehensive program designed for crime reduction in such areas and helping communities promote a healthy human milieu equipped with appropriate mind set and personality values. Since the idea that, British Crime Survey is considered the more reliable measure of violent crime then, the police recorded violent crime has been inflated over the last few years by changes in recording practices like the introduction of the National Crime Recording Standard last April 2002, increased reporting by the public and increased police activity. The need for integration process of criminal law and the civil law and be aware of the possible plan of action in order to prevent serious problems from happening in such a way that British authorities must set better vision and expressed realistic goals from within such as the following: ( 2006).
- The need for diagnosing cognitive retardation in major situations
- The evaluation of such damaged brain as well as mind problem such as in defenses of understanding
- The identification of certain connection between brain smash up and impairment of cognition in commission crime
- The assessment of risk and violence as well as obverse lobe mind Injuries
- The application and realizing evaluation ways involving retardation, behavior disorders and damages of brain
- Brain spoil as a means of justifying factor for crime sentence
- To discover abilities of the brain damaged defendant for navigation of the systems of law
- The recognition of such personality as well as behavior alterations in following injuries within the head
- The imperative appraisal of certain malingered mind deficit
- The need to explore extent of brain mutilation in cases of delicate injury
The use of brain scans to investigate the structure or function of the brain is common, either as simply a way of better assessing brain injury with high resolution pictures, or by examining the relative activations of different brain areas. Such technologies may include fMRI which yields data related to functioning, as well as MRI and CAT which yields structural data. The use of electrophysiological measures designed to measure the activation of the brain by measuring the electrical or magnetic field produced by the nervous system. The use of designed experimental tasks, often controlled by computer and typically measuring reaction time and accuracy on a particular tasks thought to be related to a specific neurocognitive process. The imperative sanction of realizing substantive areas of law in which neuropsychologists are most likely to participate are surveyed and the training of forensic neuropsychologists is examined. A brief review of the issue of malingering is also included, because this issue is pervasive throughout forensic Neuropsychology. Unique ethical problems facing forensic neuropsychologists are then discussed. Finally, future directions for the development of forensic Neuropsychology as a specialty are suggested. Although not wrong, it is best not to use raw scores as a means of comparison for many reasons, chief among them being the lack of comparability of the raw score distributions among the tasks of the battery and for any one task across age. Using raw scores correctly is typically superior to the use of inaccurate score transformations but requires extensive work and numerous calculations on the part of the person interpreting the test scores.
When planning a complete neuropsychological assessment the diagnostician should consider the presenting complaint of the individual, the individual’s history, possible rehabilitation options, and time needed for completion of the assessment. Instruments should be chosen with an eye toward their stated purpose, psychometric soundness, standardization population and hit rate versus base rate. Awareness of one’s own clinical experience and acumen should be considered when deciding how broad an assessment is needed. Observations of the examinee are critical and should always be included as part of a neuropsychological assessment. Also, qualitative data must be incorporated with test data in order to arrive at a more complete picture of the individual and degree of dysfunction. With the advent of easy access computer technology some test developers have sought to replicate existing paper-and-pencil tests to a computerized form. This increases the ease with which a test can be administered and scored, although there is cause for concern about test validity and loss of qualitative data when an examinee interacts with a computer program rather than with an examiner.
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