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Psychopathic Theory Research Paper

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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

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