Understanding and Preventing Violence, Volume 2: Biobehavioral Influences (1994)
Chapter: Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) and Pharmacotherapy
intensity of violent behavior, concluded that there was no association between violence and brain dysfunction. The remaining citation, a literature review by Eichelman (1983), concluded that there is no necessary link between limbic system pathology and the induction of aggressive behavior; the two phenomena are independent. Moreover, other brain regions may be contributory as well.
Violent Offenders—Sex Crimes
In Table 8 are summarized the results of six recent studies or reviews of violent sex offenders; five of these were conducted by the same group of researchers (Langevin et al., 1985, 1988, 1989; Hucker et al., 1988; Garnett et al., 1988). They involve a variety of innovative research techniques such as the measurement of sexual arousal as elicited by standard audiotaped erotic stimuli, and the measurement of brain pathology with CT scans and PET scans. In addition, hormone profiles, as well as careful and detailed neuropsychologic and personality examinations, were conducted. Hendricks et al. (1988) measured regional cerebral blood flow (xenon inhalation technique) in a group of child molesters.
Although the results of these innovative studies are provocative, there are no uniform findings that can be used to implicate any particular brain region in the pathophysiology of the violent sexual offender. Some results (Hendricks et al., 1988) suggest a nonspecific lower brain metabolism in such persons. Some of the findings of the Langevin group (Langevin et al., 1985; Hendricks et al., 1988) are compatible with the presence of abnormal functioning in the right temporal lobe, particularly among sexual sadists. The results of later studies (Langevin et al., 1989), however, seem to implicate left hemisphere problems, related to language, particularly among pedophilic offenders. The authors conclude that the findings are very provocative but not conclusive; the brain abnormalities are likely to be subtle in such cases and will require extremely subtle and sensitive measurement techniques. Moreover, as some of their work suggests, there may be specific abnormalities associated with different types of sex offenders (i.e., sadism, pedophilia, etc.).
TREATMENT OF VIOLENCE
Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) and Pharmacotherapy
It must follow as the night the day that if violent offenders
