Violent crime in psychiatric patients: Relationship to frontal lobe impairment

Objective: To identify neuropsychological and neurological deficits associated with violent crime in patients with major psychiatric disorders Method: 33 patients with a history of violent crime in the community and 69 without such history were administered a battery of neuropsychological and neurological tests. Results: Violent patients were more impaired on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test and on psychomotor tasks, but not on visuospatial, verbal, or memory tests. These deficits were related specifically to violent crime; they were not found in patients with nonviolent offenses. The findings remained significant when race, sex, age, neuroleptic dosage, head trauma, and drug abuse were introduced as covariates in the analyses. Conclusions: Violent crime is associated with specific neuropsychological abnormalities in executive function and psychomotor tasks which are suggestive of frontal lobe impairment.