Characterizing male adult convicts through psychophysiological measures: HR, HRV and PEP.

Abstract

Psychophysiological measures are used in a variety of fields, one of which is criminology. Attempts to correlate such measures with aggression and psychopathy have shown promising results in children. This research tried to correlate heart rate, heart rate variability and pre-ejection period with aggression and psychopathy in adults. In an attempt to characterize a group of 19 male adult convicts, values significantly different from literature were found, which raised several questions. The various confounders which are known to influence heart rate variability were assessed and closely monitored. No significant correlations were found in this research, nevertheless raising several points of discussion. Concluding that heart rate variability is difficult to compare with other researches, this research focused on closely monitoring all methods and measures used and all variables present, to give a clear picture of this research, in order to be able to compare this with future researches.