Forensic Psychology: Conduct Disorder Custom Essay

The essay question:
A young girl has been brutally attacked. She was punched and kicked and attempts were made to sexually assault her. The girl’s attacker was a 17 year old young man, with a history of violence. The young man’s solicitor argued that the crime was impulsive and opportunistic whereas the prosecuting council argued that his crime was predatory and pre-meditated. Information was provided to mitigate the sentence based on Tommy’s clinical history.
*Provide an empirically informed argument that might be put forward in this case using the following questions to guide your answer.
– Critically discuss the possible risk factors from Tommy’s childhood that might account for his behaviour.
– What psychological assessments might be conducted and how might these mitigate the outcome in this case?
– Critically evaluate the likelihood of Tommy reoffending based on this information using empirical evidence to support your argument.

This coursework is basically an essay on Conduct Disorder.
It obviously needs an introduction, main body and conclusion.
Please, throughout the essay do NOT mention Tommy’s name. It is just a scene. You will need to speak in third person. Please make sure the essay is structured well and flows with each other. And please also make sure to completely read all the references I have provided as they contain a lot of information necessary for the essay.
Please make sure that you also collect a lot empirical studies and literature on your own when writing the essay.

Key issues gathered from the scene written above about Tommy:
*history of violence
*only 17
*antisocial, conduct disorder
*solicitor argued: impulsive/opportunistic
*prosecuting council argued: predatory/premeditated
*could develop psychopathy in future, which means likely to reoffend

My professor advised me to write a history on Tommy’s past. The only reason he asked me to do this is as it will help structure the essay better, help understand the given scene about Tommy better, and will also allow originality to the essay. Here is Tommy’s history that I have come up with:

Tommy:
* Mother drank alcohol during pregnancy, born with low birth weight
* Comes from poor lower class background
* His household has marital problems. As well as alcohol and physical abuse.
* He was expelled from four different schools, due to poor performance, bullying and violence
* He has frequently experimented with alcohol and cannabis
* He suffers from depression and anxiety disorder
* In the past year, he has gotten expelled from school, stole a car, ran away for two days from home with the stolen car
* In the past 6 months, has vandalised the neighbour’s property as well as doing harm to the neighbour’s pet cat.

I hope this history on Tommy’s background will help you understand better and make it easier for you to write the essay! 🙂
As I previously mentioned, please do NOT mention Tommy’s name throughout the whole essay, and do not talk much about his history as it is only given to have a better understanding on Tommy’s situation in order to write the essay better and have originality.

To diagnose Tommy with Conduct Disorder, at least 3 of the 15 criterions of Conduct Disorder need to be present in Tommy. With at least 1 present in the past 6 months. Which I have already provided you with Tommy’s history, which shows that he definitely has Conduct Disorder and ticks all the boxes.
You will also have to specify whether Tommy’s Conduct Disorder is -childhood onset, -adolescent onset or -unspecified onset.
You will also have to specify if it is with -limited prosocial emotions, -lack of remorse or guilt, -callous/unemotional-lack empathy, -unconcerned about performance or -shallow or deficient affect.
You will also have to specify the severity, whether it is -mild, -moderate or -severe.
And, you will also have to mention whether it is life-course-persistent (LCP) or whether it is adolescent-limited (AL)

I have already chosen which ones will be included since I have already wrote a history on Tommy.
Tommy will have:
– childhood onset conduct disorder
– with: *limited prosocial emotions, *lack of remorse or guilt, *Callous/unemotional traits, and *Unconcerned about performance
– severe
– life-course-persistent

Some things that should be mentioned in the essay (theres much more however I am giving you some ideas)
*risk factors of the Conduct Disorder subtypes
*psychological assessment (what?how?why?how it helps?)
*assessment: family, teacher report
*reoffending depending on subgroup
*what is reoffending,
*how to measure reoffending
*subtypes of conduct disorder
*whether the scenario was impulsive/opportunistic or predatory/premediated,
*callous/unemotional traits
*life events that might steer someone away from these behaviours, may not necessarily be a bad person in future
*problems with cross sectional study
*longitudinal studies- continuity of behaviour over time
*clinical applications
*what policies to bring in
*what interventions, family & parent
*different treament (family therapy.behaviour modification,pharmacotherapy,etc)
*how callous/unemotional individuals’ parents are punishment oriented rather than rewarding oriented
*how reoffending is higher in callous/unemotional individuals
etc (these are just simple examples of what to mention, the essay needs to include much much more)

Here are some articles/references I would like you to use (some may not have the exact article heading, however I wrote what its about next to the names so you know which article to look for, some will also have links so it is easier for you to find the article)
– Moffitt (1993) two common pathways across cultures
– Adrian Raine – Psychopathy
– Kazdin (1995) 40% children with CD later develop APD
– Delisi et al. (2014) – Fledging Psychopath
– Viding et al. (2005) lack of conscience occur as young as 3-5 years
– Research Review: DSM-V conduct disorder: research needs for an evidence base
Terrie E. Moffitt1,2, Louise Arseneault2, Sara R. Jaffee2,3, Julia Kim-Cohen4, Karestan C. Koenen5, Candice L. Odgers2,6, Wendy S. Slutske7, and Essi Viding8

– Hawes, D. J., & Dadds, M. R. (2005). The treatment of conduct problems in children with callous-unemotional traits. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 73(4), 737. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mark_Dadds/publication/7589768_The_tre atment_of_conduct_problems_in_children_with_callous- unemotional_traits/links/0912f5089b08f63ca0000000.pdf

– Jones, A.P., Laurens, K.R., Herba, C.M., Barker, G.J., & Viding, E. (2009). Amygdala hypoactivity to fearful faces in boys with conduct problems and callous-unemotional traits. American Journal of Psychiatry,166,95-102. http://www.drru-research.org/data/resources/71/Jones-A.-P.-et-al-2009.PDF

– Frick, P. J., & White, S. F. (2008). Research review: The importance of callous‐unemotional traits for developmental models of aggressive and antisocial behavior. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 49(4), 359-375 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1469-7610.2007.01862.x/pdf

– Viding, E., Fontaine, N. M., & McCrory, E. J. (2012). Antisocial behaviour in children with and without callous-unemotional traits. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 105(5), 195-200. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Nathalie_Fontaine/publication/225065267 _Antisocial_behaviour_in_children_with_and_without_callous- unemotional_traits/links/0fcfd5127ed51cf78b000000.pdf

– Viding, E., & McCrory, E. J. (2012). Genetic and neurocognitive contributions to the development of psychopathy. Development and Psychopathology, 24, 969–983 http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1348587/1/download2.pdf

Please make sure you fully read all the articles that I have provided above. It is very important that you gather the most up to date empirical literature on this paper as the marks will be based on the quality and relevance of sources used, the quality and flow of the of the argument and the originality of the work.

 

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