Psychopaths In Prison

It is believed that a mutation in the prefrontal cortex predisposes some people to violence. The frontal lobe is what we use to make decisions and, when fully developed, allows us to think carefully about our actions before we take them. An alteration in the prefrontal cortex may make us susceptible to impulsive and rash behaviors. For example, teens tend to be more reckless than adults. The teen frontal lobe is not fully formed, which is the reason for this outcome. Teens also tend to rely on their amygdalas to make decision. The amygdala is the center for powerful emotions, such as anger, jealousy, and guilt. For example, psychopaths have been found to be void of guilt and regret as a result of “the amygdala [being] less activated when they

The year was 2013. A 31 year old man attacked his ex- girlfriend with a knife outside the social services building where they was suppose to get help with their son. The man had traces of seven drugs, three of them was heavy anti-anxiety medicines. This mans diagnosis is Antisocial personality disorder with psychopathic , narcissistic and paranoid traits. But what happened with him after his killed his ex-girlfriend? Well, he got his punishment - 18 years in prison.

The criminal justice system is riddled with a vast number of offenders. Particularly, these offenders are all diverse not only by the crimes they commit, but by their own personal criminogenic characteristics. A tremendously prevalent offender population that is currently being incarcerated at increasing rates is the mentally ill offender population (Moore & Hiday, 2006). This special type of offender population necessitates a completely different approach when punishing, rehabilitating, and re-entering them throughout these various processes. There is an immense amount of literature presently being conducted to aid the criminal justice system in being able to handle these offenders in a more appropriate way. However, according to Moore &

Scans have shown that psychopathic brains appear to be different than normal brains, the level of activity going on in their brains appears to be varying from a normal brain.

In Science Daily’s article Psychopathic Violent Offenders’ Brains Can’t Understand Punishment, Sheilagh Hodgins and Nigel Blackwood say psychopath’s brains do not learn from mistakes. The scientists took 12 violent psychopaths, 20 violent offenders with antisocial personality disorders but not psychopathy and 18 healthy non-offenders. Using an MRI, researchers observed and compared the participants’ anterior rostral prefrontal cortex (involved in decision making and memory call,) posterior cingulate cortex, medial prefrontal cortex (both involved in response to pain,) insula and temporal poles, both of which are involved in several different functions in the body. Together, all of these areas of the brain are involved in the ability to empathize,

The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry, by Jon Ronson explores the minds of psychopaths. This nonfiction book, published in 2011, analyses the question of, what is a psychopath? When most people try to answer this question they think of characters in well-known movies and books such as American Psycho and The Silence of the Lambs. They may also think of serial killers like Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy. In 1959, the Mental Health Act for England and Wales described psychopaths as a “disability of the mind which results in abnormally aggressive [...] conduct”. (PG 65). Just like many mental disorders such as autism and bipolar disorder are often misdiagnosed, so is psychopathy. As shown through this book, the normal human and even trained psychologist often find it difficult to spot and understand psychopaths. Psychopaths are a broader range of individuals than most people assume; they are serial killers, CEOs, politicians, and of course, the average person. Today, it is believed, that only one percent of humans are psychopaths.

Psychopathy is a personality disorder characterized by a constellation of interpersonal, affective and behavioral characteristics. (Harc, 1998) There are many personality traits that accompany those who are considered to be a psychopath. High levels of aggression or delinquency, and antisocial behaviors are all seen in youth with personalities correlating

Raine shares his personal research study of the brains of 41 murderers. He used a PET scan to scan all of their brains. He concluded that the murderers had poor prefrontal brain functioning and this correlates with antisocial and violent behaviors. Then he discusses how on the other hand, serial killers and psychopaths have good prefrontal brain functioning. He concludes how the limbic system, specifically the amygdala is malfunctioning in these types of individuals.

Studies with psychopaths have further located the reward-dominant cognitive style to hyperactive nucleus accumbens during reward anticipation (Hosking et al., 2017; Buckholtz et al., 2010). Importantly, with weaker connectivity within the circuit, it seems that cortical regions are failed to update both positive and negative valence in CU traits and psychopathy. During reward anticipation, CU traits and psychopathy are negatively related to prefrontal cortex activity (Murray et al., 2017; Veroude et al, 2016; Hosking et al., 2017); and psychopaths shown diminished left amygdala and OFC activation during punishment anticipation (Birbaumer et al., 2005). As mentioned, psychopaths have inverted sense of reward. It is possible that individuals with CU or psychopathic traits are not only incapable in learning from social punishment, but they are also prone to seek rewards from aggression due to reward insensitivity.

Studying behavioral characteristics of a certain group of people is a fascinating aspect of psychology. The psychopaths are some of the most extreme characters that intrigue psychiatrists. In many criminal cases involving psychopaths, it is required that a psychiatric examination is performed on the accused.

The brain structures of murderers and psychopaths, accordingly to Adrian Raine, “They’re impulsive. They are stimulation seekers…just to get that arousal jag that they’re missing, basically, from their lives.” Their violent approaches to committing crimes in society as conducted, studied and described by Raine involved with the regulating and controlling behavior of the prefrontal cortex; the emotional impact deep within the brain called the amygdale; and the enhancement of the brain functioning of mindfulness.

The biology and environment play a huge role in these offender’s lives. The interaction between neurological and having a disadvantaged environment can put them at a higher risk of becoming an offender. These offenders can be seen as psychopaths because of the factors that are a play. Throughout their childhood they begin to have antisocial conduct. Then during adolescence they begin to have cumulative consequences and in adulthood they start to commit criminal behavior.

The amygdala region in a psychopath isn’t working as inside a normal person. This causes a psychopath to be farelessed, as when a dangerous or horrified event that is threaten appear in front a psychopath, they would have no response to that whatsoever. The insula is where the awareness of body states, pain perception. Psychopath can not recognize or feel any pain, anger, and fear of the person next to them who might be their victim. They won’t even feel their own pain, and notice their own error in their behavior.

According to Wiebe, “Psychopathy does seem to be heritable, and appears to have its basis at least in part in “biological” factors linked to basic emotional systems, so that the mature psychopath never develops a complete set of pro-social emotions like empathy, guilt, and the ability to truly care about and for others” (Hunter). Scientists regard psychopathy with a genetic disorder that affects the brain, or more specifically the amygdala. The amygdala is a structure in the brain that senses and danger (Bower). Scientists have determined that there is no such thing as a specific “crime gene”, however, they have been able to discover a genes that has a correlation with violence and antisocial behavior that most psychopaths have in common. This gene is known as MAO-A (Walker). MOA-A has been associated with amygdala response and increased amygdala responses can make a person more hostile

The fearfulness and screams exhibited by the victims will not be processed by the offender, proving diminished ability to know right from wrong (DeLisi et al., 2009). This example demonstrates an offender’s inability to interpret the emotion of fear in others, potentially leading to sadistic crime. Other emotions which when misjudged, can lead to sadistic crime are aggression and sexual emotions (DeLisi et al., 2009). These emotions may be the case in crimes of rape and murder. Further to this, a study conducted by Raine et al. (1997) shows the murderer test subjects of having decreased relative glucose in the left, and increased relative glucose in the right of the amygdala when compared to controls, proving amygdala dysfunction. As a result, there is an obvious link between sadistic crime and the amygdala as shown through perspectives conducted by neuropsychological