What Is The Cause Of Psychopathic Criminal Behavior?

When we look at how fragile each one of our lives are, we need to take a minute and realize the different characteristics that form us into who we are today. Studies have shown that there are characteristics within the behavior of an individual that can be linked to the specific behaviors demonstrated by an offender that would classify them as a psychopath. Along with other research that looks into an individual’s genetics to see if that plays a role in defining or making a psychopath. John Allen Muhammad, also known as the D.C. sniper, was labeled as a psychopath when he terrorized D.C. for two weeks, taking thirteen victims and killing ten of them. This paper will go over the behaviors that constitute psychopathy, and the behaviors that

The Frontline episode “The New Asylums”, dove into the crisis mentally ill inmates face in the psychiatric ward in Ohio state prisons. The episode shows us the conditions and every day lives of mentally ill patients in Ohio state prisons, and explains how these inmates got to this point. It appeared that most of these prisoners should have been patients in an institute of some sort, out in society, but unfortunately due to whatever circumstances they ended up in prison. According to the episode, most of the inmates end up in prison due to them not coping with the outside world on their own. Prior to becoming imprisoned, the inmates had difficulties dealing with the outside world. Mainly due to lack of necessary

(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

When most people hear the word psychopath their mind forms a picture of a wild-eyed, rambling, lunatic who is often restrained in a straitjacket. The media has helped this belief along the way with slasher horror films and grisly CSI episodes depict these strange humans. However, the average psychopath is much harder to spot than most people believe. In fact, most of them are extremely difficult to distinguish from ordinary humans. They outwardly appear normal and many do not find it difficult to blend into common society. They can interact with others, hold successful jobs, and effectively keep themselves out of trouble. Most are not the sadistic killers many people think they are. Psychopaths are people born with problems (Bartol 105) or

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

In the Frontline presentation, “The New Asylums”, the program explored the lives in prison of several Ohio inmates. The presentation presented numerous distinct issues of the treatment of the mentally ill in the prison system. The most significant issues presented within the program were the medical treatment received both in and out of the prison system, factors that influence punishment, isolation and medication, the length of the sentencing the mentally ill receive, and why prisons seem to have become the new asylums.

Unfortunately, there was little discussion of the psychological effects of solitary confinement in the medical literature during the first half of the twentieth century. As evidence accumulated during the nineteenth century that solitary confinement produced a very disturbing incidence of insanity, physical disease, and death; the system fell into disgrace and therefore had changed from an open rather optimistic experiment in social reform into a hidden secretive form of punishment and control. When reports found that “brain washing” of American prisoners of war in Korea were taking place it caused a devastating psychological

Another alternative to this was developed by Lilienfeld and Andrews in 1996 called the Psychopathic Personality Inventory. The book used to categorize and diagnose those with a mental illness is Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. “Roughly 1 in 5 people with APD is a psychopath” (Psychology Today). The core set of list of traits of psychopathy is uncaring, shallow emotions, irresponsibility, insincere speech, over confidence, narrowing of attention, selfishness, inability to plan for future, and

For many years in modern history, what occurred in mental institutions were not well known and discussed about widely. One book that actually brought the reality of what happens inside mental institutions to public attention was the book entitled “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” written by Ken Kesey. The book shows the lives of the people residing in an Oregon mental asylum through the perspective of the patient named Chief Bromden. In the book, it isn’t stated exactly what mental illnesses Chief may suffer from, but by viewing the world through his eyes it may be possible to diagnose him. For a person to diagnose someone it is necessary to learn about an individual’s symptoms and what may have originally caused or

The mentally ill were treated very inhumanly in the early insane asylums. Some of the

We can no longer ignore this on-going age old problem of dealing with the mentally ill by hiding those plagued, away in a prison cell to be forgotten. Despite the success of Dorothea Dix in solving the problems with adverse conditions in the prison system, we have come full circle and are currently back where we started over a century ago. There has been so much focus put on housing the mentally ill, we have all but forgotten about any type of treatment plans to help the overall growing problem. The handling of the mentally ill in the prison system was on a collision course with the Court. Most of the prison systems have one time or another violated prisoners’ rights under the 8th amendment, cruel and unusual punishment.

Crime can be described and analysed by many different types of explanations, mostly known as theories. Each explanation concentrates on different aspects that contribute towards the act of crime, academics however often disagree on which are the predominant reasons and explanations for crime (Ainsworth, 2000). Sociological theories concentrate on the surrounding social factors being an influence as to why crime happens, whereas biological theories however would look at the individuals biological make-up as an explanation of crime. This essay will be focusing on psychological explanations of crime, the essay will explore how they aim to explain the phenomena of crime. Through highlighting the main strengths and weaknesses an analysis will

There are advantages to the Hare Checklist, specifically identification of the checklist as one of the most reliable tests at detecting psychopathy, if used by trained, professional personnel (Hare, 1990). The checklist is extensive in the identification of psychopathy, containing a 20 items long list as well as an interview and a review of past records and behaviors (Hare, 1990). The benefits of the checklist include determining the most effective care for an individual diagnosed as a psychopath, and responsibility for identifying possible psychopaths in prisons and other institutions who may become repeat offenders of violent crime (Hare, 1990). The checklist is able to predict, in some cases, the probability of another violent behavior occurring (Hare, 1990).

What determines criminal behavior? Are they born to be a natural born killer, is it in their genes, or is it a learned behavior? There are multiple factors resulting in criminal behavior, from genes to environmental factors. Although it is said and believed that criminal behavior is biologically determined there are even more learned or environmental factors that play a role in criminal behavior.

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.