How can we use knowledge about the neurobiology of emotion recognition in practice?

Laura M. Hunnikin (Cardiff University, UK) and Stephanie H. M. van Goozen (Cardiff University, UK; Leiden University, The Netherlands) published in Journal of Criminal Justice Volume 65 (November–December 2019)

Highlights

• There are limited effective treatment options for young people who engage in serious and persistent antisocial behaviour.
• To improve outcome, treatments need to be tailored to the individual’s specific cognitive and emotional needs.
• Improving emotion recognition represents a viable option for intervention.
• Teaching antisocial youth to recognise emotions in others is associated with a reduction in re-offence severity.
• Emotion recognition interventions in high-risk children should be carried out before the onset of a criminal career.

Abstract

Children with antisocial behaviour show consistent emotion recognition difficulties that are thought to contribute to their aggressive and negative behaviours.

Current treatments for antisocial youths are limited in effectiveness but research is beginning to show that emotion recognition training is a viable treatment option.

This article considers the role of emotion recognition in antisocial behaviour, the neurobiological factors thought to contribute to emotion recognition impairments and current research showing that training these individuals to recognise emotions in others represents a feasible and potentially successful treatment option.

We have outlined a program of research that once implemented will improve our understanding of the causal role of emotion recognition in the development of serious and persistent antisocial behaviour in youth.

I homed in on this one because my husband and I are having problems with a young friend of ours. Even without reading the whole article I can see that this approach could be very useful.

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