Cerebral Damage and Dysfunction in Sexually Aggressive Men

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Abstract
Fifty-one men charged with or convicted of sexual assault on an adult female were compared with thirty-six controls consisting of nonviolent, nonsex offenders using the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Test Battery, WAIS and CT scans. The sexual assaulters were classified as twenty-two sadists and twenty-one nonsadists on the basis of clinical interview, criminal history and a standardized sex history questionnaire. There was 92% agreement on psychiatric and neuroradiological diagnoses. IQ scores did not differ significantly among the groups. Right-sided temporal horn dilatation was found on CT scans significantly more often in sadists than in the nonsadistic assaulters and controls. On the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Test Battery, nonsadists showed more global impairment than the other two groups. The results were unchanged when history of alcohol abuse was taken into consideration. The study was a replication and refinement of an earlier report published by the authors and, despite problems of interpretation as a result of the different instruments used to assess cerebral damage and dysfunction, it provides additional support for the hypothesis that some types of sexual anomalies are associated with subtle forms of brain damage.

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