The present study investigated whether a battery of tests designed to measure different levels of emotional intelligence could differentiate adolescent sex offenders from a non-offender control group.
The non-offender control group (NOC; n = 18), were recruited from a participant database and consisted of male participants with no history of violent behavior, matched on age, education level, and dominant handedness with the VOF (see Table 2).
Exclusion criteria for the non-offender controls included current DSM-V psychiatric disorders.
Table 1 Resulting clusters for RFX ANOVA testing differences between violent offenders (VOF) and non-offender controls (NOC).
In contrast to our expectations violent offenders showed higher activity in the vlPFC and less activity in the PCC during anger engagement compared to non-offender controls.
The aim of the current study was to examine the brain responses during an anger engagement and distraction task18, 19 in violent offenders compared to non-offender controls.
Though initiation to regulate is primary expected in the distraction condition as shown in the non-offender controls, violent offenders already showed overactive initiation to regulate emotions during the anger engagement instruction.
Contributing to the theoretical understanding of the mechanisms underlying the regulation of anger, the present study is unique because of the comparison of violent offenders and non-offender controls during anger engagement and distraction.
Up until now no fMRI study actually investigated anger engagement as well as anger distraction within a group of violent offenders (VOF) exhibiting anger problems, comparing them to non-offender controls (NOC).
Moreover, no group differences were found during anger engagement, while during anger distraction the violent offenders showed less amygdala activity compared to the non-offender controls, indicating less amygdala sensitivity during anger distraction.
