Head Injury and Antisocial Personality Features in a Sample of Juvenile Detainees

• Published date: 01 January 2024
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/15412040231181349
• Author: Victoria Laugalis,Eric J. Connolly
• Date: 01 January 2024
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice

2024, Vol. 22(1) 46–60

© The Author(s) 2023

Article reuse guidelines:

sagepub.com/journals-permissions

DOI: 10.1177/15412040231181349

journals.sagepub.com/home/yvj

Head Injury and Antisocial

Personality Features in a

Sample of Juvenile Detainees

Victoria Laugalis

1

, and Eric J. Connolly

1



Abstract

Previous research has reported high prevalence rates of head injury amongst juvenile just ice

involved youth and relations between head injury and different forms of offending. However, little

is currently known about the extent to which head injury is associated with antisocial personality

features –characteristics that are strongly correlated with adult antisocial personality disorder

symptomatology. The current study aimed to address this void in the existing body of research by

analyzing a longitudinal sample of juvenile detainees (N= 881) to examine the relationship

between head injury during childhood or early adolescence and a wide range of antisocial

personality features in late adolescence. Results from a series of logistic regression models reveal

that head injury is associated with impulsivity and aggression more than other features of antisocial

personality. The implications of these results for juvenile justice intervention programming and

avenues for future research are discussed.

Keywords

Head injury, antisocial personality, juveniles, northwestern juvenile project

Introduction

A growing body of research suggests that incarcerated individuals and juvenile justice involved

youth are more likely to suffer from a head injury than members of the general public (Farrer &

Hedges, 2011;Hughes et al., 2015;Mongilio, 2022). While this area of empirical inquiry is

currently in its infancy, there are a few reasons to suspect that individuals involved in the justice

system may be more likely to have a history of head injury. First, sustaining a head injury early in

life has been associated with neuropsychological def‌icits and the development of symptoms of

internalizing and externalizing psychopathology during adolescence (Connolly & McCorm ick,

2019;Veeh et al., 2018;Katzin et al., 2020;APA, 2020;Schwartz et al., 2017;Fullerton et al.,

2019). These outcomes are common amongst juvenile justice involved youth (Veeh et al., 2018).

1

Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX, USA

Corresponding Author:

Victoria Laugalis, M.S. College of Criminal Justice Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology Sam Houston State

University 816 17th Street, Huntsville, TX 77341-2296, USA.

Email: vxl035@shsu.edu