James J. Hennessy

Social Problem Solving and Community Integration in Postacute Rehabilitation Outpatients With Traumatic Brain Injury

Objective: To enhance understanding of the role that social problem solving (SPS) plays in communityintegration following traumatic brain injury (TBI). Study Design: Regression analysis. Participants:Forty-five adults with TBI participating in higher level outpatient cognitive rehabilitation and 15uninjured adults. Main Outcome Measures: Measures of community integration, problem-solvingability, and SPS self-appraisal and performance. Results: Individuals with TBI demonstrated poorerproblem-solving as measured by both neuropsychological and SPS methods; however, the largest effectsize was observed for SPS self-appraisal. Only SPS self-appraisal predicted a significant proportion of thevariance in community integration. Conclusions: It is important to assess brain-injured persons’ confi-dence in their ability to cope with problems. A focus on objective test scores alone may lead tounderdetection of disabling problem-solving deficits.

Understanding a New Typology of Batterers: Implications for Treatment

Abstract This article reviews early theories of the phenomenology of battering as well as more recent empirical research on batterer personality and behavioral characteristics. These studies yielded inconsistent findings. Most recently, Chiffriller and Hennessy (Chiffriller, 2002; Chiffriller & Hennessy, in press) conducted an extensive study that attempted to expand and correct for the methodological limitations of previous research. Cluster analysis yielded five distinct profiles of men who batter women. Based on the behavioral and personality characteristics that defined each cluster, the following five labels were chosen: (a) pathological batterers, (b) sexually violent batterers, (c) generally violent batterers, and (d) psychologically violent batterers, and (e) family-only batterers. These five profiles, and the implications for understanding battering and developing appropriate interventions, are discussed.

Ethnicity and Sex Distinctions in Patterns of Aptitude Factor Scores in a Sample of Urban High School Seniors

Three aptitude factor scores for each of 2,985 college-bound, urban high school seniors were used to compare patterns and levels of performance by sex and ethnic group membership. The results indicated that within ethnic groups, men and women exhibit patterns of scores characteristic of their sex. Significant differences in levels of performance between ethnic groups were found on the three factors, and differences on two factors were found for males and females.

Day hospital versus outpatient treatment: a controlled study.

This study compares day hospitalization with traditional outpatient treatment effecting rehospitalization, symptomatology, mood, community, and vocational adjustment for 30 recently discharged schizophrenic patients. Results indicate day hospital patients were significantly more involved in work and training activities, but had no significant difference in the other areas of measurement.

To Punish or to Treat: Substance Abuse within the Context of Oscillating Attitudes toward Correctional Rehabilitation.

Abstract Although its remote origins can be traced to the end of prohibition with the repeal of the Volstead Act in 1933, the nations “war on drugs” gathered massive strength in the early days of the Reagan administration. During the 1980s and 1990s, the decision of the nation, expressed through its legislators, seemed to be to “criminalize” drug use or abuse through imposition of harsh penalties for what had earlier been statutorily defined as relatively minor offenses and by eliminating judicial discretion in sentencing, so that mandatory incarceration was required for many offenses. Yet by 2000, the voters of California, the Governor and criminal court judges of New York, and even the nations “drug czar” had decided that they would rather, as described by the New York Times, “treat than fight.” This paper situates that sea change in posture within a context of oscillation toward the goals of corrections generally during an era in which “therapeutic nihilism” and “just deserts” appeared to have carried the day.

An Empirically Generated Typology of Men Who Batter

Abstract The goal of this research was to determine whether profiles of men who batter their female intimate partners differ significantly according to their attachment style, violent and nonviolent conflict resolution tactics, psychopathology, jealousy, and alcoholism. The sample consisted of 201 men enrolled in domestic violence programs. The design was a self-report survey consisting of the Relationship Scales Questionnaire (RSQ); Conflict Tactic Scales, Revised (CTS2); Basic Personality Inventory (BPI); Multidimensional Jealousy Scale (MJS); and Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test (MAST). Cluster analysis was used to classify subjects based on the similarity of their behavioral and personality profiles. Post-hoc analyses were computed to assess significant differences in terms of cluster-determining as well as demographic variables. Cluster analysis yielded five discernable clusters: pathological, sexually violent, generally violent, psychologically violent, and family-only. Comparisons to previously identified typologies, implications, and recommendations for future research are discussed.

Blacks and Whites as Victims and Offenders in Aggressive Crime in the U.S.

Abstract This paper analyzes data on the annual incidence of aggressive crime (homicide, sexual assault, aggravated assault) in relation to race, contrasting proportional distribution of Blacks and whites among victims and offenders in relation to their representation in the general U.S. population. Blacks are over-represented among offenders in each category of aggressive crime: in homicide at a level 315% greater than their representation in the general population, in sexual assault at a level 404% as great, in aggravated assault at 274% greater than their representation in the general population. Whites and “others” are under-represented among offenders. Blacks are at highly increased risk, relative to their representation in the nations population, for victimization in homicide and at some disadvantage (although not at a level appropriately denominated as risk in a statistical sense) for victimization in both sexual and aggravated assault. Episodes of criminal aggression initiated by white offenders account for slightly more than 73% of all single-offender episodes of aggressive crime, while episodes initiated by Black offenders account for approximately 27%, so that white-perpetrated criminal aggression exceeds Black-initiated criminal aggression at a ratio of 2.7:1. Blacks are represented among offenders in aggressive crime slightly more than twice their representation in the nations population. It is more than five times as likely that a white victim has been set upon by a white offender than by a Black offender and nearly seven times as likely that a Black victim has been set upon by a Black offender as by a white offender. It is 32 times as likely that a white offender will victimize another white as it is that he or she will victimize a Black. But Black offenders victimize whites as frequently as they victimize other Blacks. When gender and age are considered interactively with race, it is seen that Black males in adolescence and adulthood are at astronomically enhanced risk both for homicide offending and for victimization in homicide, such that Black males aged 18-24 are at a risk level for offending nearly 28 times greater and for victimization nearly 17 times greater than their representation in the national population. Data on divergence in “choice” of victim by Black offenders not inflected by age and on the astronomical risk for homicide offending by young Black men likely anchor a phenomenology of fear among whites.

Male Batterer Profiles: Support for an Empirically Generated Typology.

Abstract Domestic violence is an issue that affects different sides of society; numerous studies have shown that it is a problem that is increasing. This study used a discriminant analysis to identify those scales that might be more effective at predicting group membership among batterer types: pathological batterers, sexually violent batterers, generally violent batterers, psychological violent batterers and family-only batterers. The purpose of this study was to measure batterer behaviors and how the batterer types differ in terms of attachment styles, conflict resolution, psychopathology, jealousy, and alcohol abuse.

Personality influences in the stability of early (teen-age) marriage in the United States

Previous research indicated that similarities and differences in specific personality factors are associated with differences in marital stability. Most findings were based on assessments of personality after marriage, thus confounding the effects of marriage on personality. The findings reported here relate congruence between spouses’ personality assessed prior to marriage with the status of the marriage three to five years after marriage. Each partner in a group of 72 teenage couples completed the 16PF prior to obtaining approval to marry. These data were examined using intraclass and multivariate analyses. The findings indicate that hypothesized patterns of personality factors differentiated stable from unstable marriages.

Neuropathology and Criminal Violence -- Newly Calibrated Ratios

Abstract In connection with the development of their “tinder-box” model for the analysis of criminal aggression, the authors have maintained a “running count” of empirical studies published in the past 40 years that have examined violent criminal offenders for the presence or absence of brain dysfunction. In various publications, we have reported on the ratios between the relative incidence of neuropathology among offenders arrayed by type of violent crime and the overall incidence in the general population. In Spring 1999, the Federal Centers for Disease Control put the incidence in the general population at “slightly more than 2%.” With the CDC figure as a base rate, the relative ratios for neuropathology among violent offenders range from highs of 47:1 for homicide offenders and 48:1 offenders; through midrange levels of 43:1 for juvenile offenders, 39:1 for assault offenders, and 33:1 for incest offenders; to lows of 6:1 for “one-time aggressives.” Implications are drawn for standards of criminal culpability.