Psychopathy And Psychopathy

Psychopathy as a mental disorder or construct, although not included in the presently valid classification systems, is gradually fascinating the experts and investigators involved in the field of mental health. Curiosity in psychopathy has mainly grown after the declaration of the new classification system DSM V in which psychopathy is mentioned as a clear diagnosis in the context of six new personality illnesses.

Around the world, several new cases of serial homicides are reported every year. (Vronsky 15). Ninety-seven percent of serial murders are committed by psychopaths: someone who lacks a conscience, feels no remorse, cares exclusively for his own pleasures and cannot empathize with the suffering of his victims (Levin and Fox 4). The psychopathic state is not a mental illness but is a behavioral or personality disorder (Vronsky 245). When these behavioral components are combined with the desire to kill, an addiction is triggered and rarely broken. The psychology of a psychopathic serial killer produces specific character traits that cannot be altered therefore rehabilitation and imprisonment will be unsuccessful in treatment.

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

The criteria mentioned above was the first step taken to compose a fully acknowledged (check)list when it comes to psychopathy. After Dr. Hervey Cleckly, Dr. Robert Hare took up his task and produced a considerable amount of work to identify neurological abilities exclusively found in psychopaths. Dr. Hare’s work resulted in the PLC-R or Psychopathy Check List - Revised. An adaption or expantion from Dr. Hervey Cleckly’s product.

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

With these doubts to using the causes of psychopathy to identify future psychopathic offenders, there are ways in which the legal system, including psychologists, therapists, and courts, can better determine the likelihood of a future psychopathic offender and how to care for them. Looking back at the histories of adult psychopaths, they “consistently committed more violent and non-violent crimes” from their “adolescence to their late 40s” (Birt et al. 647). When working backwards and looking within the large number of youths that have psychopathic tendencies, one understands from the evidence that some will continue to commit crimes as they grow up into adulthood. A way to narrow down which children will become repeating offenders is to

It helps evaluate the personality traits and behaviors of an individual based on a scaled determined by an in-depth interview. But does it means everyone can determine if someone is a psychopath? The answer is not. Of course, someone can identify some of the personality trait and behaviors listed in the PCL-R but it does not mean that individual is a psychopath. In addition, the Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version (PCL-SV), a derivative and shorter version of the PCL-R can also be used for such purpose. Already stated, the most startling aspect of the reading was how difficult it was to identify a psychopath. For such reason, these tests should be used carefully. It must be a psychologist or a psychiatrist who makes the judgment and determines if the traits and characteristics apply to the person being assessed. It is impossible to think that anyone can label someone else as a psychopath. I believe it must be taken seriously when applying certain traits to someone and label that person a psychopath. The simple fact that a certain individual has some of the traits, behavior or characteristics of a psychopath does not mean that it is such a thing. Of course, the behavior of that person may be

Introduction The purpose of this study is to compare and contrast the constructs of psychopathy and antisocial personality disorder. The aim is to highlight whether the terms psychopathy and antisocial personality disorder reflect the same construct or whether they differ. Furthermore, recommendations for treatment of criminal behavior will be explored. For the purposes of this evaluation some definitions need to be highlighted: Criminal offence is an act that breaks a law, which relates how to behave in society. The harm caused by the act is seen to be against society as a whole, not just a specific person. Sometimes it refers to the specific law that was broken (Herring, 2009). Crime is the breach of rules or law for which some authority

The concept of psychopathy originated in the 1800s to describe individuals that consistently failed to conform to societal norms and exhibited antisocial behavior that did not fit the concept of mental illness of the time period. While, psychopathy was a common term used to describe individuals suffering from this disorder other descriptions were coined such as “Pinel’s term “manie sans delvie” meaning mania without delirium in the 1700s, to describe patents whose ‘affective faculties were disordered’” or Pritchard’s term “moral insanity” (Ogloff 520). In the 1930’s Partridge argued that psychopathy was a social rather than a mental disorder and proposed that the concept of sociopathy be introduced as a more accurate description. The American Psychological Association adopted Partridge’s term for their Diagnostic and Statistical Manuel in 1952. However, in 1968 the American Psychological Association changed the diagnostic label from sociopath to “personality disorder, antisocial” for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manuel – II that continued through to the DSM - III in 1980 and the DSM - III-R in 1987 and the DSM - IV in 1994. Today the Diagnostic and Statistical Manuel categorizes antisocial personality disorder as a personality disorder and it is named as such. Unfortunately, not much research has been conducted

The bulk of the book revolves around the mysterious enigmatic topic psychopathy and how it is essentially all around us; in the highest places and the lowest, inside the best and worst of us, and a bit in the core of us all. The history of psychopathy goes back to the beginnings of civilization itself, but its treatment and study began to take of in the late 1800’s and reached its peak in the mid-1900’s. Ronson dedicates many pages of The Psychopath Test

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

“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

Outside of a psychological perspective, the term antisocial personality is not recognized (Walsh & Wu, 2008). The most common term to describe these behaviors is known as “psychopath.” Despite the similarities between the two terms, research suggests that they are distinct constructs from an empirical point of view. Most cases of psychopathy are diagnosed within prison or other forensic settings and will meet the DSM-5 criteria for Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD), whereas only 15-25% of the cases of APD will meet criteria

In the United States there are approximately 1,075,000 psychopathic males in prison or on parole out of 1,150,000 males that meet the criteria for psychopathy (Kiehl and Hoffman). Psychopaths and sociopaths tend to commit more crimes than mentally sound people because of their lack of empathy but with the right treatment they can begin to understand right from wrong. Both psychopathy and sociopathy are defined as antisocial personality disorders that produce a lack of empathy in the victims (Porter). The topics of psychopathy and sociopathy have numerous causes which negatively affect the victim, his or her family and the society in which they live; however, treatment for psychopathy and sociopathy can be a positive force for the future of

Psychopathy Checklist–Revised’s (PCL-R) Facet 4 parcels, Parcel G (General Acting Out), was the only PCL-R measure to consistently achieve success in classifying individual cases using the receiver operating characteristic approach