NCJ Number
72171
Journal
Archivos de Neurobiologia Volume: 34 Issue: 5 Dated: (September-October 1971) Pages: 375-382
Date Published
1971
Length
8 pages
Annotation
The electroenceplhalographic study of 100 juvenile offenders awaiting sentencing in a Spanish jail was conducted to detect possible differences in the brain wave tracings of the subjects compared with the electroencephalographic readings of nonoffenders and hospital patients.
Abstract
None of the young subjects (aged 16 to 18), had a history of mental illness or emotional disturbance. Their committing offenses included crimes against persons and property crimes; 45 percent were first offenders and 55 percent were recidivists. The survey findings were affected by the lack of cooperation of several of the subjects, who, during the reading, swallowed, shook their heads, fidgeted, and, by their own admission, were incapable of sitting still due to nervous anxiety. Their anxiety state, caused by or causing dysorganization and dyscontrol, could have influenced the electroencephalographic readings, which showed a marked percent of the subjects showed unsynchronized readings, versus 17 percent in the normal population group. Only 6 percent of the subjects registered alpha readings, versus 83 percent in the normal population group. Two of the subjects produced slow readings, a result of encephalopathy. Rehabilitation prognosis is significantly worse for subjects with electroencephalograms showing good alpha rhythms, which are associated with psychopathic traits. It is also possible that the anxiety state which caused the unsynchronized readings may also be responsible, in part, for the deviant behavior of these juvenile offenders. Spainish, French, and English abstracts are appended. --in Spanish.