Associations of interpersonal trust with juvenile offending/conduct disorder, callous-unemotional traits, and criminal recidivism

Interpersonal trust has been described as a core dimension of cooperative, mutually beneficial interpersonal relationships but it is unclear if it is related to antisocial behaviours in youth. The present study aimed at analysing a subsample of male juveniles who committed serious violent offenses and met criteria of conduct disorder (JO/CD), and a subsample of healthy controls (HC) using a series of trust games (TGs). Twenty-four male JO/CD and 24 age matched male HC performed a series of eight one-shot TGs against different unknown human respectively computer opponents. Mixed model analyses found a non-significant trend that JO/CD invested less points than HC during TGs. In the subsample of JO/CD, the overall investment in TGs was found to be negatively associated with self-reported uncaring behaviours and officially reported general re-offenses. Our findings suggest some indication of an impaired ability of JO/CD to initiate mutually trusting relationships to others that should be addressed in further research. Trust is a promising factor to predict general criminal recidivism and can be a target for treatment of juveniles who committed violent offenses, for example through the building of stable relationships to care givers. This study encourages future studies to investigate the effects of trust-increasing psychosocial interventions.