Essay on PCL-R: The Test of Success

In Chapter 4, we talked about mental disorders and how it was difficult for psychiatrists to figure out criteria that would help them decide which offenders are mentally ill, which is also known as psychopathy (Adler, Mueller, and Laufer 2013, pg. 103).  Hare & McPherson (1984) states that “crimes and behavior of psychopaths are more violent and aggressive than are those of other criminal”. We learned that it is difficult to get reasons that would help determine which offenders are mentally ill. Adler, Mueller, Laufer (2013) stated that, “Some psychologists consider psychopathy to be an artificial label for an antisocial personality" (pg. 104). As we learned many criminals are labeled and it seems interesting to see that psychopaths are very hard to label. In

According to psychopathologist Kevin Dutton, the gene is more or less like a trigger for psychopathy. If a person suffered a depressive or dark childhood, they may grow up in spite for their childhood (Szalavitz). This trigger is where environment and genetics coincide with each other. If the environment probes a situation, then the gene triggers. This intellectual claim is what ties this all together. Genetics are a faster way of causing

In fact,because psychopaths are not able to feel empathy involuntarily, they are able to turn the feeling on. It is very common for psychopaths to have “ a false belief in their own superiority, a sense of entitlement and a complete disregard for social norms” (Paula, year). Psychopathy had recently been changed into ‘antisocial personality disorder’ in the updated version of the FBI’s mental health book, DSM-III. It was changed for the reason of the personality not always being reliable, as well as psychopathy symptoms crossing over antisocial personality disorder symptoms. Another reason for the change was because it is believed that focusing on behavior instead of the why helped identify the disorder easier. The new research was highly and widely discussed among many physicians because some felt unsure of the change, but they were also for the change with consideration of the evidence that was found. The usual psychopath is not found to be violent. If they are violent, they are considered more dangerous than others and will most likely reoffend sooner and worse than the first time. Between psychopaths and non psychopaths, psychopaths have a longer criminal history which varies in crimes. Their patterns are unique when compared to a non psychopath, but due to their inability to have emotion, they are able to be more observant on their next chosen

Accordingly, there exists a small group of people who exhibit most-to-all of these specific and peculiar characteristics and behaviours. This particular group of predators presents numerous challenges to morality, safety and policy. For instance, because a "psychopath" may display a general coldness toward others, they are more likely to commit criminal acts, and afterward not respond to punishment or deterrent tactics. Hare’s psychopathy checklist when used as a tool to identify psychopaths prevents harmful exposure of non-psychopaths to this dangerous group of offenders. For this tool to work effectively there must not be significant overlap of the specific characteristics used in the PCL-R to identify psychopaths as in the general population of non-psychopaths. In other words, the psychopath must

Psychologist Donald Hebb once answered the question of nature vs. nurture by responding with a similar question, “Which contributes more to the area of a rectangle, its length or its width?” I find this to be a very interesting and true argument. As we know, a rectangle’s area can be determined by multiplying its length by its width, or vice versa. If either one of these variables is unknown, you cannot determine what the area is. They both have an equal contribution to the equation. Similarly, it is impossible to single out either nature or nurture as the reason that somebody becomes a psychopath. They both contribute equally to the equation.

Generally defined, psychopathy is a personality disorder that is characterized by a combination of superficial charm, strong antisocial behavior, and extreme sensation-seeking and impulsivity. Psychopaths make up approximately 15% of the prison population while between 50% - 80% of that prison population could be diagnosed more broadly with antisocial personality disorder (Ogloff, 2006). While the percentage of those diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder is high, the percentage of psychopaths in prison is extremely overrepresented compared to the average population which hovers between 1% - 4% (Ogloff, 2006). While it would be disingenuous to say that all psychopaths are dangerous, their overrepresentation in the population of violent

In “The Making of a Serial KIller” Dr. Berit Brogaard writes about the causes of psychopathy and studies done to determine them. The article goes in depth about if psychopathic tendencies are genetically determined or caused by social factors, such as a broken family. According to Brogaard, and many other studies, there is a large difference between psychotics and psychopaths. I believe that Brogaard’s article is nicely written and satisfactorily informed, although she does show insensitivity to minority groups.

The definition of psychopathy involves deficits in areas of functioning, such as, selective attention, anxiety and fear processing, moral reasoning, and criminal violations of society’s rules (Vien & Beech, 2006). Furthermore, there are a number of personality qualities linked with psychopathy, which include, interpersonal and affective traits such as, lack of empathy, shallow affect, callousness, shallow emotions, grandiosity, superficiality, manipulation, and charisma(De Brito, Viding, Kumari, Blackwood, & Hodgins, 2013; Murrie, Boccaccini, Caperton, & Ruffino, 2012). In addition, other

Scientist have tried to find out what makes a psychopath and are still trying to get a better insight in their minds. An important question is that is it nature or nurture or both that contributes to someone being a psychopath. Can we blame it all on neurochemistry or has environment got a role to play in it too? this gives rise to another question, does the brain of a psychopath resemble the brain of a normal human being?

Psychopath’s have genetic dispositions and psychologist believe that they were born with their illness. Psychopaths only form artificial relationships with people who they can manipulate. Psychopath’s tend to be shown on the outside as charming, innocent, and “normal”. Psychopaths are very strategic in that they take time to thoroughly examine and

The natural cause of psychopathy is due to malfunction of the brain while the causes of sociopathy consist of environmental factors. Various studies have shown that psychopaths are born and faintly affected by the environment around them. As noted in “Inside the Mind of a Psychopath,” psychopathy is due to the malfunction of the area in the brain that controls human emotions, thus psychopathic people lack empathy and the ability to manage emotions properly (Kiehl and Buckholtz 5-6). Furthermore, Professor Crag S. Neumann declares that “evidence from large-scale studies suggests that psychopathic traits are

Another significant indicator that psychopaths are a result of evolutionary mechanics, can be evaluated by examining animals in other social species that are similar to human psychopaths. Essentially, in almost every community-based animal population there are a select few that rely on cheating or manipulating others in the population to get what they want (qtd. In Walsh and Wu 139). Further evidence shows, that these few animals only succeeded when there are relatively few individuals with the same cheating behavior because too many would then result in an overall net loss throughout the population. Likewise, “[these] strategies eventually result in organisms that are genotypically, not just phenotypically, different; that is, a separate discreet, taxon of a species, not simply

“Psychopathy is a personality disorder characterized by an inability to form human attachment, aggressive narcissism, and antisocial behavior defined by a constellation of affective, interpersonal and behavioral characteristics, most of which society views as pejorative” [1]. Some of these characteristics include irresponsibility, grandiosity, cunning, deceitfulness, selective impulsivity, sexual promiscuity, lack of empathy, etc. People who are psychopathic display not only antisocial behavior but also emotional impairment such as the lack of guilt. They are able to prey on others using their charm, deceit, violence or any other methods that allow them to get what they want. A strong feature of most of the behavior

Ronson: Great question. First, I should explain that although a good portion gain psychopathy through their life, many are born with it. Being born with it is

Psychopaths can seem just like you or me, but when you are not around them this is when their mental disorder kicks in. Psychopaths that have been put in jail committed three times as many crimes per year then non-psychopaths. 97% of convicted psychopathic criminals cause at least one violent crime compared to 74% of non-psychopaths. Psychopaths are shown to be more violence throughout their entire life compared to a regular people. Psychopaths tend to have a greater chance of failing on parole and mandatory supervision and have a faster rate of failing then non-psychopaths. Psychopathy predicts recidivism on conditional release as well as or better than do actuarial risk instruments. Psychopaths recidivate at a rate of three to four times higher than that of non-psychopaths.