Elsevier

Journal of Criminal Justice

Volume 71, November–December 2020, 101728
Journal of Criminal Justice

Reactive and proactive aggression in sexual homicide offenders

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2020.101728Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Reactive and Proactive Aggression in Sexual Homicide Offenders.

  • Adverse childhood experiences were associated with reactive aggression (RA).

  • Sexual sadism was associated with proactive aggression (PA).

  • Impulsive-antisocial psychopathic traits were associated with RA.

  • Affective-interpersonal psychopathic traits were associated with PA.

Abstract

Purpose

The reactive-proactive aggression dichotomy is a valid, reliable, and useful concept widely used in psychology and criminology but paradoxically largely ignored in the field of sexual offending research. The objective of this study was to test whether adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) as well as psychopathology relevant to physical and sexual violence (psychopathy and sexual sadism) predict the type of aggression (reactive/proactive) exhibited in the commission of a sexual homicide.

Methods

Data were collated from criminal case files held across 46 courthouses in France. Reactive sexual homicide offenders (SHO-R, n = 31) and proactive sexual homicide offenders (SHO-P, n = 58) were compared in terms of ACEs and psychometric measures of psychopathy (PCL: SV) and sexual sadism (SeSaS).

Results

The findings indicated that ACEs and PCL: SV Factor 2 were associated with reactive aggression in the context of sexual homicide, whereas PCL: SV Factor 1 and sexual sadism were associated to proactive aggression.

Conclusions

This study emphasized the role of ACEs and personality traits in the development of different types of aggression exhibited in sexual homicide and highlighted advantages of applying mainstream psychological and criminological concepts to extreme violence phenomena.

Introduction

Over the past three decades, research on aggressive behavior has documented two types of aggression, namely, reactive and proactive (Dodge, 1991; Dodge & Coie, 1987). Reactive aggression is conceptualized as an immediate behavioral response to frustration, threats, or physical aggression and is usually accompanied by high, uncontrolled autonomic arousal (i.e., physical symptoms of anger such as heart rate; Berkowitz, 1963, Berkowitz, 1993; Dollard, Doob, Miller, Mowrer, & Sears, 1939; Houston, Stanford, Villemarette Pittman, Conklin, & Helfritz, 2003). This response serves in self-defense or retribution, notably by harming the source of the negative stimuli. It has been suggested that this type of aggression represents either unconditioned temperamentally based reactions or conditioned (via negative reinforcement) emotional responses to external events (Vitaro & Brendgen, 2005). A number of synonyms for reactive aggression appear in the research literature, such as affective, defensive, impulsive, retaliatory, and hot-blooded (Raine et al., 1998). By contrast, proactive aggression is conceptualized as a behavior motivated by the anticipation of reward – which may be external/material or internal/psychological in nature. As such, it is a response learned through positive reinforcement (Bandura, 1973, Bandura, 1983) rather than preceded by autonomic arousal. Individuals using proactive aggression are classically described as likely to plan ahead, and as methodical, logical, calculating, and regulated in character (Meloy, 2006; Raine, 2013). Thus, the terms predatory, premeditated, instrumental, and cold-blooded are often used as synonyms for proactive.

It is important to note that on separate occasions an individual can display both reactive and proactive aggression. In fact, because research has shown that the two types of aggression can co-exist in the same individual (Dodge, Lochman, Harnish, Bates, & Pettit, 1997; Pulkkinen, 1996; Vitaro, Gendreau, Tremblay, & Oligny, 1998) and they are often found to be moderately to highly positively correlated (rs ranging from 0.41 to 0.83; see Fite, Raine, Stouthamer-Loeber, Loeber, & Pardini, 2010; Little, Henrich, Jones, & Hawley, 2003), the reactive-proactive dichotomy has been called into question (Bushman & Anderson, 2001). However, a number of studies have demonstrated two distinct factors via both exploratory and confirmatory factorial analyses (Brown, Atkins, Osborne, & Milnamow, 1996; Crick & Dodge, 1996; Day, Bream, & Pal, 1992; Dodge & Coie, 1987; Fung, Raine, & Gao, 2009; Poulin & Boivin, 2000; Raine et al., 2006; Salmivalli & Nieminen, 2002). Furthermore, with the distinction between the form of aggression (overt versus relational) controlled within factor analyses, reactive and proactive aggression are not correlated (r = −0.10) (Little et al., 2003). This supports the validity of the dichotomy since apparently similar behaviors seen in reactive and proactive aggression (physical violence) are distinguishable when controlling for confounding factors.

In addition, the validity of the dichotomy is empirically supported according to summaries of its correlates (Hubbard, McAuliffe, Morrow, & Romano, 2010; Meloy, 2006; Vitaro & Brendgen, 2005). Identified correlates suggest distinct etiological and developmental trajectories for reactive and proactive aggression. Generally, reactive individuals have been found to have grown up in family environments characterized by physical maltreatment (Barry et al., 2007; Connor, Steingard, Cunningham, Melloni Jr, & Anderson, 2004; Dodge et al., 1997), or have experienced rejection or victimization by peers (e.g., Dodge et al., 1997; Lamarche et al., 2007; Poulin & Boivin, 2000; Price & Dodge, 1989; Prinstein & Cillessen, 2003; Salmivalli & Nieminen, 2002; Schwartz et al., 1998). Conversely, proactive individuals tend to be perceived in positive terms by their peers, due to their charisma (i.e., humor and leadership; Dodge & Coie, 1987). They have been found to have had family backgrounds characterized by a lack of parental control (Dodge et al., 1997), and an absence of physical maltreatment (Poulin & Boivin, 2000). They are exposed to antisocial or aggressive behavior engaged in by their parents (parental substance abuse and family violence; Connor, Steingard, Anderson, & Melloni, 2003) or by their peers (tendency to have friends also described as proactively aggressive; Poulin & Boivin, 2000; Vitaro et al., 1998). In their longitudinal study of 172 twin pairs, Brendgen, Vitaro, Boivin, Dionne, and Pérusse (2006) identified that environmental effects unique to each twins within a pair accounted for 61% of the variance of reactive aggression and for 59% of the variance of proactive aggression, suggesting that reactive and proactive aggression may be influenced by different socialization experiences.

Differences in socialization experiences seem, then, to lay the foundations for the emergence of distinct psychosocial adaptation problems. Research suggests that reactively aggressive individuals tend to have deficits in social information processing (bias towards interpreting others' attitudes as hostile; Crick & Dodge, 1996; Dodge & Coie, 1987) and to develop internalized problems such as hostility (Raine et al., 2006), anxiety (Seah & Ang, 2008), depression (Vitaro, Brendgen, & Tremblay, 2002) and low self-esteem (Amad, Gray, & Snowden, 2020; Lee, 2014). Furthermore, these individuals have difficulty controlling anger (McAuliffe, Hubbard, Rubin, Morrow, & Dearing, 2006; Moore, Hubbard, Bookhout, & Mlawer, 2019), have a tendency to exhibit impulsive reactions (Barry et al., 2007; Raine et al., 2006) and disruptive behavior disorders (Connor et al., 2004; Waschbusch et al., 2002). Finally, in terms of psychopathology, reactively aggressive individuals have personality profiles characterized by persistent experience of negative emotions (i.e., neuroticism; Miller & Lynam, 2006), as well as mistrust or suspiciousness towards others (i.e., paranoid personality disorder; Lobbestael, Cima, & Lemmens, 2015). Reactive aggression has been associated with Psychopathic Personality Inventory (PPI; Lilienfeld & Andrews, 1996) Factor 2, which measures self-centered impulsivity (Cima & Raine, 2009), and negatively correlated with PPI Factor 1, which measures fearless dominance, as well as Facet 4 of the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised(PCL-R; Hare, 2003), which comprises items measuring antisocial behavior (Declercq, Willemsen, Audenaert, & Verhaeghe, 2012).

On the other hand, proactively aggressive individuals seem to have good cognitive and emotional regulation abilities, and perform well academically (Day et al., 1992; Little et al., 2003). They have higher verbal abilities than reactively aggressive individuals (Arsenio, Adams, & Gold, 2009), little anxiety (Vitaro et al., 2002), positive self-image, manage their frustration, and do not attend to others with hostility (Little et al., 2003). However, it has been shown that they are less emotional in their daily life (Moore et al., 2019) and tend to anticipate positive outcomes for aggression (Arsenio et al., 2009; Crick & Dodge, 1996; Dodge et al., 1997; Hubbard, Dodge, Cillessen, Coie, & Schwartz, 2001; Schwartz et al., 1998; Smithmyer, Hubbard, & Simons, 2000). Behaviorally, proactively aggressive individuals develop externalized problems (Miller & Lynam, 2006; Pulkkinen, 1996), such as disruptive behaviors (Dodge & Coie, 1987; Raine et al., 2006; Vitaro et al., 1998) and criminal behaviors, notably taking the form of physical aggression (Brendgen, Vitaro, Tremblay, & Lavoie, 2001; Cornell et al., 1996; Raine et al., 2006; Vitaro et al., 1998). Concerning psychopathology, overall the empirical evidence converges on an association between proactive aggression and psychopathy (e.g., Cima & Raine, 2009; Cornell et al., 1996; Fite et al., 2010; Raine et al., 2006; Woodworth & Porter, 2002), notably emotional detachment (Cornell et al., 1996; Frick, Cornell, Barry, Bodin, & Dane, 2003), narcissistic traits and manipulation which is classically observed among psychopathic individuals scoring highly on Factor 1 of the PCL-R (i.e., interpersonal-affective features of psychopathy) (Amad et al., 2020; Barry et al., 2007; Declercq et al., 2012; Hamberger & Hastings, 1986; Seah & Ang, 2008). Finally, it is noteworthy that certain studies' results suggest that proactively aggressive individuals could have a propensity for sadistic behaviors, given their lack of concern for social norms (Lilienfeld & Andrews, 1996), their need to exert control over others (Winstok, 2009), and the high scores on the sadism scale of the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (Millon, 1994) in the context of intimate partner relationships (Gottman, Jacobson, Rushe, & Shortt, 1995).

These differences in the socialization experiences and psychosocial adaption between reactively and proactively aggressive individuals have principally been identified based on the analysis of samples of children, adolescents, and adults from the general population. The validity of the reactive-proactive dichotomy has been examined in offender samples (Cima & Raine, 2009; Cornell et al., 1996; Declercq et al., 2012; Walters, 2007), including some studies with samples of homicide offense perpetrators (Raine et al., 1998; Woodworth & Porter, 2002), but these studies focus on the relationship between the types of aggression (reactive versus proactive) and psychopathic personality (or its neural substrates). Although offender samples report adverse childhood experiences at higher rates than other populations (e.g. Baglivio et al., 2014), the examination of their role in such samples in relation to reactive and proactive aggression has been somewhat neglected. Equally surprising is the lack of studies examining the reactive-proactive dichotomy in sexual offending. Indeed, examining this in a sample of sexual offenders having committed an act of extremely violent aggression, such as in the case of sexual homicide, has the potential to better define the scope of the reactive-proactive dichotomy. Furthermore, studying reactive and proactive aggression among perpetrators of sexual homicide will serve to marry the literature on violence and sexual offending, and may also highlight pathways to violent sexual offending that will improve our understanding of the factors predisposing an individual to act with reactive or proactive aggression in the context of a sexual offense. Therefore, through examination of the characteristics of a sample of sexual homicide offenders (SHO), the objectives of the present study were twofold. First, to test the developmental antecedents of reactive and proactive aggression. Specifically, we tested whether victimization and exposure to inadequate parental behaviors in youth predicts reactive or proactive aggression in the context of sexual homicide. Second, to test the association between the types of aggression and psychopathology in adulthood, specifically psychopathy and sexual sadism. Psychopathological factors suspected to play a crucial role in the use of physical and sexual aggression during a sexual homicide. In doing so, the study also aimed to connect empirical findings from the field of sexual homicide research to knowledge based in mainstream psychology and criminology research.

Section snippets

Sample

Participants (N = 120) had been convicted for at least one homicide in France between 1975 and 2012. Inclusion criteria were that the homicide needed to correspond to Ressler, Burgess, and Douglas' (1988) specification that it may be considered sexual in nature when evidence or observations include “victim attire or lack of attire; exposure of the sexual parts of the victim's body; sexual positioning of the victim's body’ insertion of foreign objects into the victim's body cavities; evidence of

Parental maltreatment in childhood

Parental maltreatment in childhood was retrospectively assessed from 0 to 12 years old. Three types of victimization were assessed as having been present or absent: physical, psychological and sexual maltreatment (see Beauregard & DeLisi, 2018; DeLisi & Beauregard, 2018; James, Lussier, & Proulx, 2018). Victimization was coded to have been present on the basis of vast sources of information, including participant statements (e.g. during the criminal investigation or during psychiatric

Results

Logistic regression analyses were performed to assess prediction of reactive and proactive aggression, first for developmental factors (parental maltreatment in childhood, parental maltreatment in adolescence, and exposure to inadequate parental behaviors), and then for psychopathological factors (psychopathy and sexual sadism). First, the independent effect of ACEs on reactive-proactive aggression was investigated. Parental maltreatment in childhood was associated with reactive aggression, χ2

Discussion

Over the past three decades, numerous studies of sexual homicide have indicated that these crimes of extreme violence are, like non-violent crimes (e.g., burglary; Fox & Farrington, 2012) and crimes that are violent to a lesser extreme (e.g., domestic violence; Johnson et al., 2006), committed by individuals with diverse developmental and psychopathological profiles (e.g., James & Proulx, 2014). The identification of different profiles has proven to be a crucial empirical step given that it has

Conclusion

By examining associations between ACEs, certain psychopathology pertinent to physical and sexual violence, and the reactive-proactive aggression dichotomy in the context of sexual homicide, the present study highlighted that it is possible to understand crime of an extremely violent nature using concepts from mainstream psychology and criminology. In fact, reliable and valid terminology that existed in mainstream psychology and criminology (reactive-proactive aggression) was found to closely

Acknowledgements

J.J. was supported by the Fonds de Recherche Société et Culture du Québec, grant 2019-B2Z-260457.

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