9 - The role of neuropsychological deficits in conduct disorders

Summary

Introduction

The idea of a link between the physical health of an individual's brain and his or her level of antisocial behaviour has been in the literature for centuries. Benjamin Rush (1812, cited in Elliott, 1978, p. 147) referred to the ‘total perversion of the moral faculties’ in people who displayed ‘innate preternatural moral depravity’. Rush further suggested that ‘there is probably an original defective organization in those parts of the body which are occupied by the moral faculties of the mind’. Since Rush's day, there have been numerous advances in our understanding of the human brain and in our ability to measure its functioning. Using this new information and technologies, scientists have worked to put more specific accounts of the ‘neuropsychological hypothesis’ to the scientific test.

In what is to follow, we examine the accumulated evidence for the relation between neuropsychology and conduct problems in children and adolescents. Specifically, we will demonstrate that antisocial behaviour is related to impairments in two specific domains of functioning: language-based verbal skills and ‘executive’ or self-control functions. Next, we will also examine several proximal and distal accounts that attempt to make sense of these relations. We will present in some detail a comprehensive, developmental theory that draws from research in neuropsychology, criminology, personality and development and that offers one of the most satisfying explanations. Finally, we will end with a discussion of the methodological and theoretical shortcomings of the present research and an outline for the future.