NCJ Number
235480
Journal
Criminal Justice and Behavior Volume: 38 Issue: 7 Dated: July 2011 Pages: 641-658
Date Published
July 2011
Length
18 pages
Annotation
This study examined gender diffences in emotion processing of incarcerated males and females.
Abstract
Research on psychopathy among incarcerated White males has consistently demonstrated deficits in emotion processing and response inhibition. Using the Psychopathy ChecklistRevised to classify participants as psychopathic or nonpsychopathic, this study examined the performance of incarcerated White females on two laboratory tasks: a lexical decision task used to assess emotion processing and a passive avoidance task used to assess response inhibition. Contrary to prediction, deficits in performance typically exhibited by psychopathic males were not exhibited by psychopathic females in this sample. Implications of these findings are discussed and an interpretation of the results in the context of the response modulation hypothesis is presented. (Published Abstract)