Psychopaths: Are You Committed A Crime?

Psychopathy is condition in which an individual has a wide array of negative personality traits. The trait that stands out the most is that they enjoy the suffering of others, as well as compulsively, and very skillfully, lying to others. Also, their sense of superficial charm causes people to gravitate toward them. Psychopaths are also known for their lack of general remorse and empathy for any wrongdoings they may commit. They are known to deny responsibility for actions they commit, as well as maintaining a parasitic lifestyle; figuratively speaking they feed off of those around them that can contribute to their desires. This condition, while it may seem like it is extremely rare, this is only due to the fact that these people are very good at blending in with normal people, making it hard to judge who is truly a psychopath.

They’re distinctive traits include living a parasitic lifestyle, lack of responsibility for their actions, glibness, and a lack of realistic long term goals (“Psychopathic”). They do not learn from their experiences and cannot form meaningful relationships. They continuously engage in antisocial behavior, punishment does not have an affect on their behavior, and they are emotionally immature (Hare, Psychopathy 9). They find it hard to control their impulses and commonly hold many short-term relationships, often engaging in promiscuous sexual behavior. (“Psychopathic”). Frequently, they fail to plan ahead, have a low frustration acceptance, and have no problem lying blatantly to someone’s face. Psychopaths don’t feel remorseful if they mistreat or hurt someone, in fact, the person’s safety, as well as their own, is disregarded in order for the psychopath to get what they want (Hare, “Psychopath vs. Antisocial”). An easy way to describe a psychopath is a human who lives a predatory lifestyle (“Psychopathic”).

Psychopathy; a term used to describe an individual with the ability to differentiate between right and wrong and acknowledge the rules of society, but are impervious to the moral foundation of these rules. Unlike other mental disorders such as sociopathy and schizophrenia, psychopathic individuals are able to understand actions that violate the law or go against social norms (Glenn 1). Although, they may be able to accurately judge moral and/or legal violations, one major factor that they lack is – emotional capacity. It is estimated that about 1% of the general population is made up of psychopaths, which is a considerable risk when it comes to crimes (Parry n.p). Therefore, the way in which the law responses to psychopathic individuals is an important moral and empirical issue. With that being said, should psychopaths be held criminally responsible for their behavior? Due to psychopathic individuals failure to meet criteria necessary for moral responsibility, such as the lack of understanding of the human race, predetermined biological structures of the brain and the fact that psychopathy is

First of all, when a person suffers from psychopathic behavior, they manifest superficial charm while concealing deep rooted anger. In other words, psychopaths have the tendency to be smooth, charming, slick, and engaging, while hiding their true intentions toward the other. You could clearly see this behavior in my client. My client explains that his actions to Fortunato were unquestionable, as h treated Fortunato with great politeness and as a friend, but Montresor states that Fortunato has wounded him many times and

One may predict that placing psychopaths in therapy may help make them become less violent or help rectify their actions in some way. Before reading this book, I already knew that, while this may be true for more normal individuals, this is false in regards to psychopaths. However, this novel made it more clear for me as to why therapy would not work. This is because, in order for therapy to work properly, the patient must recognize that there is something wrong. With psychopaths, they “feel they don’t have psychological or emotional problems, and they see no reason to change their behavior to conform to societal standards with which they do not agree” (195). This statement addresses one of the reasons as to why serial killers are able to serially kill. They do not see a problem with what they are doing, ergo making it impossible to get them to stop or

Psychopaths are unable to put themselves in the shoes of another person. They are unable to understand the feelings of another person. The author of the article” Psychopathy, Sociopathy and Crime” David Lykken, stated that, “the psychopath is characterized by a lack of the restraining effect of conscience and of empathetic concern for people”(Lykken 3). In another interview Hare had with a female psychopath, she had allowed her boyfriend to molest her five year old daughter. She simply did not want to have sex that night and believed it was fine to let him have her daughter.

“Research has shown psychopaths have underdeveloped components of the brain commonly thought to be responsible for emotion regulation and impulse control. ”(www.psychcentral.com)This simply means that they do not and cannot blend into society properly. Movies portray pyscopaths as heartless serial killers. Although psychopaths are for the most part motionless, it doesn't automatically classify them as a serial killer. Actually according to Manisha Kumar article on the “differneces between sociopaths and pyscopath”, “They can maintain normal social relationships.

Psychopaths, in their brains, are wired differently. This leads to almost no remorse for any crime they commit as well as never feeling guilty for their choices. A psychopath view people in their daily lives and society as pawns to be played with. Psychopaths are given the capability to “play” with their “pawns” due to the personality they portray to the outside world. Often viewed as charming and trustworthy, a psychopath gains entrance into the lives of those they wish to manipulate.

Psychopathy is a disorder which can be split into two subtypes, primary and secondary. Primary psychopathy is typified by callous, manipulative, selfish and untruthful behaviour (Karpman, 1948, as cited in Levenson, Kiehl & Fitzpatrick, 1995). Secondary psychopathy is associated with anxiety, introversion, low self-esteem and moodiness (Blackburn & Fawcett, 1999 as cited by Ali & Chamorro-Premuzic, 2010). Cognitive empathy is described as the being able to understand and infer emotions of others (Joliffee & Farrington, 2004 as cited by Ali & Chamorro-Premuzic). Understanding the association between Psychopathy and Empathy is an area of interest as it provides insight on how to effectively rehabilitate psychopaths; if they are showing the

“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

There are various physical and behavioral differences between a psychopath and an average person. In the book The Social Brain: Evolution and Pathology, doctors of psychiatry Hedda Ribbert and Wulf Schiefenhövel explain psychopath’s core features as a lack of empathy, persistent disregard for the feelings of others, reduced emotion, and have autonomic hyperresponsivity to sad and fearful

Psychopathy is a very complex mental disorder. With its many layers of problems and degrees of intensity, it makes it hard for doctors and scientist to understand or comprehend the mind of a psychopath. Correspondly, even many people do not know what a psychopath really is. “Many people assume that psychopaths are serial killers or extremely violent, but psychopathy cannot be equated with extreme violence or serial killing. In fact, most psychopaths do not appear different from other people, or unalterably dangerous (5).”

Psychopathy is a disorder that may be difficult to spot in a person as they may seem normal and charming on the outside but within they lack conscience and empathy which may lead to them being manipulative and volatile. Psychopaths tend to have no empathy or feel real emotion for others but can easily gain people’s trust by mimicking the other’s emotion. Psychopathy is often scrutinized into three salient facets: affective, interpersonal, and behavioral traits (Hawes 623). Affective refers to the callous-unemotional traits which is a limit of empathy, lack of guilt, and shallow affect. Interpersonal refers to manipulativeness and behavioral is referred to as impulsively

Psychopaths are people who are suffering from a recurring mental disorder with extraordinary or vicious social behavior. People who suffer from this disorder typically neglect laws and social morals, as well as the rights of other individuals. Psychopaths tend to exhibit potent behavior and will not feel any shame or remorse towards the victim(s). Individuals who suffer from this chronic disorder are usually unable to form emotional connections or feel real compassion with other individuals, even though they might seem like they have a loveable personality. Psychopaths are very devious and can easily win over people’s trust. Individuals with this condition learn to imitate various emotions, even though they can’t feel them, and will emerge normal to many innocent individuals, catching them off guard. Shockingly, many of these so called “psychopaths” are usually well educated and have good careers. On top of that, many psychopaths are so sneaky that they even have families and relationships without them knowing their mental disorder even

Mass murders and planned killing sprees; the average person cannot grasp how any normal-thinking human can commit such heinous acts. This illustrates the contrasting mindsets of an average person and a psychopath, who are often guilty of these acts. Psychopathy is traditionally viewed as a personality disorder defined by antisocial behavior, diminished empathy and remorse, and disinhibited and impulsive behavior. Psychopathy is therefore associated with an increased risk of crime and violence, creating a formidable challenge for the justice systems. Although psychopaths’ crimes are inexcusable and they should be punished, if society intervenes before a psychopath reaches criminal status, we could prevent many tragedies. Psychopathy is a mental disorder that can be diagnosed early in a person’s life and, if reared in a healthy environment and taught how to channel anger and behavior, a psychopath is capable of living a normal and peaceful life.