"I feel your fear": superior fear recognition in organised crime members.

Individuals who deviate from social norms by committing crimes may have reduced facial emotion recognition abilities. Nevertheless, a specific category of offenders - i.e. organised crime (OC) members - is characterised by hierarchically organised social networks and a tendency to manipulate others to reach their illicit goals. Since recognising emotions is crucial to building social networks, OC members may be more skilled in recognising the facial emotion expressions of others to use this information for their criminal purposes. Evidence of a difference between OC and non-organised crime (NOC) offenders in terms of facial emotion recognition is still lacking. To fill this gap in the literature, we tested 50 OC, 50 NOC offenders, and 50 non-offender controls for their ability to identify six basic emotions (happiness, sadness, fear, anger, disgust, and surprise). All participants underwent a cognitive and psychological evaluation to avoid alternative explanations. Results show that OC members were more able to detect the expression of fear in others as compared to NOC. We interpreted this finding in light of the social context and the behavioural criminal attitude of OC members.

Pathological risk-propensity typifies Mafia members' cognitive profile.

Since the recruitment process, Italian Mafias impose on their members a strict code of conduct. These rigid rules regulate their private and public behavior, implying a total adhesion to the group's values. Such juridical and social aspects substantially distinguish organized crime (OC) from ordinary crime. It is still unknown whether these two categories of offenders also show distinctive cognitive traits. Here we investigated the frontal lobe cognitive functions of 50 OC prisoners from the Mafia and 50 non-OC prisoners based on the performance of 50 non-prisoner controls. We found that OC members were more likely to show pathological risk-propensity than non-OC prisoners. We interpret this finding as the result of the internal dynamics of Mafia groups. OC is a worldwide threat, and the identification of cognitive traits behind criminal behavior will help in devising focused prevention policies.

Forgiveness and Blame Among Suicide Survivors: A Qualitative Analysis on Reports of 4-Year Self-Help-Group Meetings.

This article presents the qualitative analysis of reports obtained through participant observations collected over a 4-year period in a series of suicide survivor self-help group meetings. It analysed how grievers' healing was managed by their own support. The longitudinal study was focused on self/other blame and forgiveness. Results show how self-blame was continuously present along all the period and how it increased when new participants entered the group. This finding indicates that self-blame characterizes especially the beginning of the participation, and that any new entrance rekindles the problem. However, no participant had ever definitively demonstrated self-forgiveness, while a general forgiveness appeared when self-blame stopped. It is also suggested how to facilitate the elaboration of self-blame and forgiveness.