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In our first substantive chapter, we provide a comprehensive review of studies that have tested associations between indicators of intelligence (broadly construed to include executive functions and other cognitive measures) and physical aggression or violence. This includes studies of verbal ability, performance intelligence, and the PIQ > VIQ discrepancy. We found that there is much evidence indicating that violent offenders have greater intelligence and executive functioning deficits than nonviolent offenders do, and we were surprised to find that it is unclear whether intellectual deficits are associated with nonviolent-only offending at all. We conclude that measures of intelligence and executive functioning are differentially associated with violent behavior.

Attachment insecurity is seen as a risk factor for many behavioral problems. In this chapter, we examine the role of parental attachment in the development of violent behavior. We find consistent evidence that attachment to parents is negatively associated with physical aggression and violence in children. There are nuances to this conclusion; some measures are better than others, and the findings are not as strong as the findings for some other criminogenic factors. Regarding the differential etiology of violence, there is weak, preliminary evidence that indicators of substantial attachment problems (e.g., parental loss and separation) are more strongly associated with violent than nonviolent-only offending, but otherwise, we tender no conclusive evidence that measures of attachment to parents are strong differential predictors of violent behavior.

This chapter provides a review of research on parental warmth and parental rejection and their associations with physical aggression and violence. There is consistent evidence that parental warmth is inversely associated with violent behavior, but the effects are not very strong. By contrast, there is robust evidence that indicators of parental rejection, seen as the far end of a warmth-rejection continuum, are correlated with physically aggressive and violent behavior. The studies as a whole suggest that violent offenders have experienced less warmth and greater rejection from parents than nonviolent-only offenders. The evidence suggests that low parental warmth is associated with nonviolent offending as consistently as it is with violent offending. The association between parental rejection and offending is clearly more consistent for violent than nonviolent antisocial behavior. The finding is important in light of commentary made about the average expectable environment in Chapter 2.