Frontal lobes and older sex offenders: a preliminary investigation

Since the 1930s, researchers have speculated on the causes of sexual offending in older men (Henninger, 1939). Although official statistics indicate that men over 60 years commit about 10% of recorded sexual crimes in England and Wales (Fazel and Jacoby, 2002), little research has been conducted to investigate risk factors for sexual deviancy in this group. It has been hypothesized that older men sustain agerelated brain changes that may precipitate such offending behaviour (Roth, 1968). In support, retrospective examination of psychiatric diagnoses of older offenders referred by court for psychiatric assessment found an association between dementia and being charged with a sexual offence (Fazel and Grann, 2002). Evidence from studies in individuals displaying antisocial behaviour has demonstrated that changes in the frontal lobe are an important area to investigate (Anderson et al., 1999; Raine et al., 2000). For example, a recent study comparing personality profiles and neuropsychological test scores of violent offenders, arson offenders and sex offenders found poorer perseverative error scores on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test in arsonists, although overall