Cognitive control differences in violent juvenile inpatients

A stepwise discriminant analysis was used on a calibration sample (n = 135) of dangerous and nondangerous juvenile inpatients to determine which demographic, psychosocial, and cognitive variables best distinguished the violent inpatients. The resulting statistical model was cross-validated on the remainder of the sample (n = 123). Results show that the violent inpatients were more likely to be younger males whose family had a history of criminal behavior and extensive family discord. Moreover, the cognitive variables showed that violent inpatients showed differences in attention and memory, especially when they were processing aggressive stimuli. Results are discussed in terms of the potential ability of cognitive psychology to adopt an ecological perspective and to contribute to forensic assessment.