When growing up as a child, I have always been greatly interested in the criminology field and the aspects of the criminal mind. As such, when I came across a topic pertaining to psychopaths and their behavior I was unequivocally intrigued. However I never quite fully understood what makes an individual a psychopath. The psychopathic concept was peculiar to me, and had many questions: Are psychopathic individuals a result from birth or poor nurturing? Seeking immediate answers, I spoke with criminology professor Wislyn Joseph at Miami Dade College Homestead Campus. Professor Joseph was a former detective for the Miami-Dade Police Department for 12 years. In addition, he currently holds a Master’s degree in criminal justice, specializing in …show more content…
In this article Matthew Taylor discusses experiments conducted by Dr. Kent Kiehl, a neuroscientist of the University of Mexico. Dr. Kiehl believes that psychopaths are the way they are due to an illness in their brain. He believes it is controversial to label a psychopath as evil, when he views “Psychopaths as someone who us suffering from a disorder” (Kiehl). Furthermore, Dr. Kiehl conducted a brain scan on Brian Dungan, an infamous serial killer responsible for the death of three young girls. As he conducted his experiment Dr. Keihl explains that Brian’s brain “has very low levels of density in a system we call the para-limbic system” (Kiehl). The para-limbic system is commonly known as the amygdala, which is a part of the brain in the pre-frontal cortex. This area is associated with the processing of emotions. Furthermore, Kiehl states that psychopaths simply lack an emotional ability, much the same as other lack intellectual ability. Kiehl describes how he spoke with Dugan and discovered that he has no concept of the harm that he caused. Kiehl states that “Talking about his crimes, is like asking him what he had for breakfast” (Kiehl). Overall the neuroscientist concluded, that individuals are born psychopaths, however, should not be labelled as evil because they suffer from a mental …show more content…
This article discusses how Aina Sundt and Jim Age, researchers from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology conducted an experiment to find out if psychopaths behave due to poor nurturing. The team did not conduct a diagnostic and evaluation method for psychopathy through a questionnaire. The questionnaire measured Norwegian prisoners’ emotional and interpersonal well-being. Team discovered that in a controlled group, most of the individual’s parents were negligent and overly controlling. They discovered that the parents of individuals who suffer from psychopathy are overwhelming, and are the reason that they feel rejected. The team concluded that psychopaths are the result of terrible childhood through the evaluation that they
(Gao, 2011). Henry Greenwald sums it up perfectly with this quote, “Usually when we talk about the psychopath we are talking about the unsuccessful psychopath. The reason why we generally do not discuss the successful psychopath is because we would then have to discuss many of the rulers of our world. This paper will delve into the biological explanations of psychopathy and how differences and dysfunctions in certain brain regions can result in the outward manifestation of these psychopathic traits. This paper will further address the non-criminal psychopaths and the criminal psychopaths, provide brain structures and functions that distinguish these subgroups and finally, will address biosocial factors that displace psychopaths towards the path of crime and
In order to protect oneself from a sociopath, one must understand the inner clockwork of one, in order to both diagnose others, or even self diagnose. Because of the danger of a sociopath and there chamelion like talent to blend in with the general community, they are very hard to identify, but knowing how to is crucial to keep oneself safe.
devious, heartless humans. There are many questions surrounding the actions of psychopaths Why do they murder? What could possibly drive someone to take another 's precious life away? At first glance, most believe that psychopaths are irrational and are entitled to punishment without fully understanding there clinical disability first. The fundamental cause of psychopathic behavior has to do with their environment and neurological structure. Psychopaths are not morally responsible for their actions, but they are, to a certain extent, criminally responsible.
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?
If the crucial emotional connection between an infant and its parents is weak, that infant is likely to suffer from antisocial personality disorder (APD).The victims of APD are essentially devoid of conscience: they are chronic liars, cheats, and thieves, self-centered, and frequently incapable of empathy with other human beings.(Newton, Michael 2000, p.41).This is better quoted by author Bowlby, John (1979, p.89) in his book The Making and Breaking of Affectional Bonds, "In psychopaths the incidence of illegitimacy and the shunting of the child from one ‘home’ to another are high. It is no accident that [Ian] Brady of the ‘Moors’ murders was such a one". Later, in one of the study conducted by FBI, which interviewed dozens of serial killers, it was found that with every individual there was a similar pattern of severe childhood neglect. (US Department of Justice, 2005).Moreover, children who get mentally, physically or sexually abused struggle in personality development. According to Dr.Dorothy Lewis, a professor of psychiatry at NYU Medical School, an early ongoing abuse is one of the circumstances that promote extreme violence(as cited by Raven, 2009) It is known that a staggering large proportion of serial killers have survived extremely traumatic childhoods riddled with physical, verbal ,and sexual abuse. One such example is about Albert De Salvo, whose father
The interviewer in the video implied that a psychopathy is a result of both genetic and upbringing. The genetics of psychopathic behavior is passed on from one generation to another however based off how that individual is raised well determine the outcome of this behavior. In our textbook, it discusses that, “…the socialization process in families, the personalities, values, and beliefs of children are initially shaped.” (Regoli p 246). If a child is brought up in a family that provides a role model of being a productive member of society, then a psychopathy by genetics has an opportunity to flourish in society. Whereas the opposite is true of children produced by parents that practice hate and abuse. It is also important to remember that,
I do believe everyone has predisposition to have certain traits or characteristics. Certain genes are inherited and can lead to a certain type of behavior. However, the environment plays a major role if we express theres traits and to what extent. CDr. Fallon research did show that people who are diagnosed as psychopaths have neurological defects in the part of their brain that controls animal instinct and ethics. He himself showed very similar defects in those region. Yet, he is not a criminal or a killer. One percent of our general population are psychopath meaning they struggle to make emotional bonds and have empathy, which is strange but not a crime. Therefore, by being solely a psychopath does not make you a criminal there are other factors
The question for this paper is, why do individuals with high levels of psychopathy traits have a hard time recognizing emotions and distinguishing what is fair or unfair? The term psychopath is defined as, “an individual incapable of experiencing remorse” (Watson, N. V., & Breedlove, S. M., 2012, p. 319). What causes a person to be considered a psychopath? It is hypothesized that since there is reduced activity in the frontal cortex, that it may be the reason it impairs the ability to control impulsive behavior. Watson and Breedlove (2012) stated that psychopaths are often intelligent characters with superficial charm that has poor self-control, a large sense of self-worth, little to no feelings of remorse, and someone who sometime commit violent
A psychopath is traditionally defined as someone with a personality disorder characterized by persistent antisocial behavior, impaired empathy and remorse, and bold, disinhibited, egotistical traits. In society, psychopaths display specific characteristics such as lack of empathy, which may identify and explain how they respond in certain situations.
The term “psychopath” brings forth images, of a cold and heartless, “crazy person”, into people’s minds when they hear the term. However people classified as psychopaths posses distinguishing characteristics that set them aside from those who are “mentally healthy”. A very minimal percentage of people are diagnosed with psychopathy. According to the article, “Psychopathy and Culpability”, less than fifteen percent of incarcerated criminals meet the criteria for psychopathy (Fox, 3). However, the few individuals who are diagnosed with psychopathy whether they are criminals or not, meet the criteria of a checklist known as the PCL (Psychopathy Checklist). The PCL has since been updated to a second edition know as the PCL-R (Fox, 4). The PCL-R is a test, which uses a checklist of characteristics that uses
Do you ever find Joy in someone elses pain? Most people can have a laugh when someone gets hurt. Some people find pure pleasure from seeing others get hurt. So to what affect does this have on a person? Psychopathy is a disease, it doesn't spread easily, although it can be spread. Being a psychopath can cause you to find joy in others pain, or have no feelings what so ever, sometimes it can even lead to murder. People who are psychopaths, can and will become dangerous and maybe even lead up to murdering others.
This paper explores research conducted within the Psychology classroom and is a review of literature. The material covered will discuss terminology used as well as review concepts learned regarding psychopathic tendencies found in children. A statement has been made that not all children who commit malicious crimes are psychopaths, and three main points were addressed to decide whether the statement was true or not. The first point discusses the early signs of psychopathy and what behaviors children with psychopathic tendencies obtain. The second point of the paper discusses what events can take place in early childhood that could possibly influence young children to commit such violent crimes. Finally, the last key point of
The idea of psychopathy goes back over two centuries. It first gained recognition in North America due to the work of Cleckley (1941). Psychopathy is a personality concept traditionally linked with different personality traits and behaviours. Cleckley (1941) stated that these clinical features did not only exist in the prisons but also in the general population. Successful individuals who have a higher social status portray traits associated with psychopathy. Cleckley (1982) also stated that individuals who portray psychotic traits tend to have an above average intelligence.Psychopathy can be broken in into two main subtypes (Blackburn, 1998). Primary and secondary psychopathy. Secondary psychopathy tends to be more common in the general population. Many clinicians and researchers have long speculated psychopaths in the general community (
Anh Vien and Anthony R. Beech start the reading by quoting that Hare “estimated that 15% to 20% of all prisoners are psychopath” (285). There has been an attempted to try to give a general definition of psychopathy but most researchers are in disagreement. The evolution of psychopathy began over a century ago but it only recently found scientifically sound psychometric procedure for its assessments (285). The first look at personality traits was Checkley who discovered that psychopath was revealed through the disintegrating effects of strong emotion and the disconnection between the world and “semteci demtnia” (285). Cleckley discovered 16 personality traits
Psychopathy is a disease of the mind, in which the psychological state of someone has emotional or behavioral problems serious enough to require psychiatric evaluation. Psychopaths have no concern for the feelings of others and a complete disregard of any sense of social obligation. Psychopaths are characterized by lack of empathy, poor impulse control and manipulative behaviors. They use charm, manipulation, intimidation, and the use of severe to mild violence to satisfy their own needs.