Frontal lobe deficits in domestic violence offenders

Functional frontal lobe deficits were examined in 38 men who committed domestic violence and 38 control participants. Dependent measures that examine frontal lobe deficits, including the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (D. A. Grant & E. A. Berg, 1948), the Stroop Color-Word Test (J. R. Stroop, 1935), and Trails B (R. M. Reitan & L. A. Davidson, 1974), were used. The prediction that men who commit domestic violence would perform more poorly on neuropsychological measures related to frontal lobe deficits was only partially supported. A discriminate analysis was significant (p < .05), explaining approximately 7% of the variance; Trails B was the only contributor to that equation. The men who committed battery took significantly longer to complete Trails B than the control participants, suggesting that the men who committed battery may not have been as good as the control participants at inhibiting the competing response and therefore took longer to complete the task. The groups did not significantly differ on the other neuropsychological measures.