@article{ref1,
title="Self-reported trauma, cortisol levels, and aggression in psychopathic and non-psychopathic prison inmates",
journal="Biological psychology",
year="2008",
author="Cima, M. and Smeets, Tom and Jelicic, Marko",
volume="78",
number="1",
pages="75-86",
abstract="The relationship between self-reported traumatic childhood experiences, cortisol levels, aggression, and psychopathy was investigated in prison inmates (n=47) and healthy controls (n=27). Besides questionnaires, a brief salivary diurnal profile was measured. Results show that criminals (both psychopaths and non-psychopaths) demonstrate more traumatic childhood experiences than the control group. Within the group of criminals, psychopaths showed the lowest diurnal cortisol concentrations, whereas the non-psychopaths demonstrated highest daily average cortisol (DAC) scores. High levels of aggression were related to traumatic childhood experiences in non-psychopaths and control participants, but not in psychopaths. Although psychopathic offenders demonstrated low levels of cortisol, high levels of childhood traumatic experiences and high levels of aggression, cortisol was not a mediating factor between childhood traumatic experiences and aggression. Implications of the finding that psychopathic offenders displayed lower and non-psychopaths showed higher daily cortisol levels are discussed.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0301-0511",
doi="10.1016/j.biopsycho.2007.12.011",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2007.12.011"
}