Psychopathy and Psychopathic Offenders: PDF

Chapter 11: psychopathy and psychopathic offenders Psychopathy: a personality disorder defined by a collection of interpersonal, affective, and behavioural characteristics, including manipulation, lack of remorse or empathy, impulsivity and antisocial behaviours - Descriptions of psychopathy ex...

Chapter 11: psychopathy and psychopathic offenders Psychopathy: a personality disorder defined by a collection of interpersonal, affective, and behavioural characteristics, including manipulation, lack of remorse or empathy, impulsivity and antisocial behaviours - Descriptions of psychopathy exist in most cultures - The Inuit in Alaska use the term kunlangeta to describe an individual who “repeatedly lies and cheats and steals things and does not go hunting and, when the other men are out of the village, takes sexual advantage of many women—someone who does not pay attention to reprimands and who is always being brought to the elders for punish- ment” - Inuit elder would do with a kunlangeta, “Somebody would have pushed him off the ice when nobody else was looking” - Aka intraspecies predators - Seek vulnerable victims to use for their own benefit - Psychopaths are dominant, selfish, manipulative individuals who engage in impulsive and antisocial acts and who feel no remorse or shame for behaviour that often has a negative impact on others Assessment of psychopathy - Hervey Cleckley provided one of the most comprehensive clinical descriptions of the psychopath in his book the mask of Sanity - Described 16 features (positive to negative)  - Currently, the most popular method of assessment is the Hare’s psychopathy Checklist Revised (PCL-R’ Hare, 1993, 2003) - 20 item scale (score 0 (doesn’t apply), 1, or 2 (definitely applies) on each) - Semi structured interview and review of file information to assess interpersonal (manipulativeness), affective (lack of remorse), and behavioural features (impulsivity) - Current psychopathy is a 2 factor model - Factor 1: combination of interpersonal affective traits - Strongly correlated to instrumental violence, emotional processing deficits, dropping out of treatment, poor treatment response - Factor 2: combination of unstable and socially deviant traits - Strongly related to reoffending, substance abuse, lack of education, and poor family background - Some researchers argued for a 3 factor model of psychopathy 1. Arrogant and deceitful interpersonal style 2. Deficient affective experience 3. Impulsive and irresponsible behavioural style Self report measures - Assesses for psychopathic traits - Advantages  - You can measure attitudes and emotions that aren’t easily observed by others (feelings of low self esteem) - Easy to administer (administered on the web), Quick to score, inexpensive - Not necessary to worry about interrater reliability since only the individual is completing the score - Although there’s concerns about psychopaths lying, some questionnaires measure response styles to detect faking good or faking bad - Challenges - Lying (some psychopaths are master manipulators and will say whatever is in their best interest - could malinger and claim a mental disorder to avoid punishment) - Psychopaths might not have sufficient insight to accurately assess their traits (they might not consider themselves arrogant, dominant, or opinionated where others might) - Difficult for them to report on specific emotions if they haven’t experienced those emotions (if they’re asked if they feel remorse for the suffering they’ve caused, they might mistaken this emotion with regret they feel for getting caught) - 2 most used self report scales (Self report measure of psychopathic traits) 1. Psychopathic personality inventory - revised (PPI-R) a. 154 item inventory designed to measure psychopathic traits in offender and community samples b. 8 content scales and 2 validity scales (to check for carelessness and positive or negative response styles) c. Measures 2 factors (fearless dominance and self centered impulsivity) d. Includes Coldheartedness scale - measure emotional deficitys 2. Self Report Psychopathy (SRP) a. 64 item self report measure designed to assess psychopathic traits in community samples b. 4 factors: i. Erratic lifestyle (i’m a rebellious person) ii. Callous affect (I am more tough minded than others) iii. Interpersonal manipulation (I think I could beat a lie detector) iv. Criminal tendencies (i have been arrested by the police) c. There’s a shorter version: 29 items used when conducting online surveys 3. TriPM a. Developed to measure the triarchic model of psychopathy b. 58 items that asses 3 main components i. Boldness ii. Meanness iii. Disinhibition (impulsivity, behavioural controls) - Score range from 0 to 40 - 30 or higher is a psychopath (25 in UK) Psychopathy and Antisocial personality disorder: Antisocial personality disorder (APD): Personality disorder characterized by a history of behaviours in which the rights of others are violated - Need to demonstrate 3 or more symptoms: - Deceitfulness - Impulsivity - Irritability - Repeatedly engage in criminal activity - Irresponsibility - Lack of remorse - Reckless behaviours - There are seven adult symptoms that include engaging in criminal behaviours, being a risk taker, failing to be truthful, and having little guilt for one’s actions - The other diagnostic criterion are: - The person is at least 18 - Conduct disorder was present by history before age 15 - The antisocial behaviour doesn’t occur in the context of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder Sociopath: label used to describe a person whose psychopathic traits are assumed to be due to environmental factors - People who refused or had problems adapting to society - Manifest similar traits as psychopaths but develop the traits as a result of poor parenting and environment factors vs psychopaths are predisposed to temperament that makes them difficult to socialize APD: - Although psychopathy and APD share some features, APD places more emphasis on antisocial behaviours - Almost all psychopaths can be classified as having APD - Most offenders diagnosed with APD aren’t psychopaths - APD, psychopathy, and sociopathy are interchangeable Forensic use of psychopathy - Court cases with testimony about psychopathy resulted in more severe dispositions - Diagnosis of psychopathy, sociopathy, and APD are aggravating factors for the death penalty and associated with a higher risk of violent recidivism and lack of treatment responsivity in dangerous offender hearings  - In Canada, psychopathy and associated constructs were used in making sentencing decisions: to support a case’s transfer from youth to adult court, to contribute to dangerous offender hearings, to help determine parole eligibility, and to assess mental state at time of offence hearings - Psychopathy doesn’t meet the insanity defense - Psychopaths know the difference between right and wrong - Are mental health professionals hired by prosecution or defence influenced by who hires them? - Adversarial allegiance: tendency for forensic experts to be biased towards those who hire them - PCL-R scores provided by prosecution experts are higher as compared to defence experts - There is evidence for an adversarial allegiance with “prosecution” professionals - Ex: giving higher PCL-R scores compared to “defence” professionals - Hare (2016) suggests that such differences in scoring may be due to a lack of proper training in using the PCL-R, improper application of the tool, or the possibility that some experts act as "hired guns"—adjusting their assessments to favor the side that hired them. Additional research by Boccaccini et al. (2014) showed that experts who have attended training workshops on the PCL-R tend to be more reliable in their scoring. The authors stress the importance of proper training for professionals using the PCL-R, given the significant consequences for individuals who are assessed as psychopathic. - There’s some concern about the use of risk assessment measures with indigenous offenders - In canada, 27% of adult offenders are of Indigenous descent, but only represent 5% of the population - A study examined the factor structure and predictive accuracy of the PCL-R in a sample of indigenous and non indigenous male offenders - PCL was moderately predictive of reoffending in both groups - Indigenous offenders scored 2 points higher on PCL-R vs non indigenous (particularly on lifestyle and antisocial factor) Psychopathy and violence - Psychopaths make up a small proportion of the population but account for a large proportion of all crimes committed - They are compatible with a criminal lifestyle and have a lack of concern for societal norms - They: - Start their criminal careers younger - Persist longer and commit a greater variety of crim - Engage in more violent crime - Are more likely to reoffend - The one crime they don’t commit more is homicide Psychopath myths: 1. Psychopaths are born, not made 2. Once a psychopath, always a psychopath 3. All psychopaths are violent 4. You either are or are not a psychopath a. Its not an all or nothing construct, you can vary in the degree that you carry psychopathic traits 5. There are no female psychopaths 6. Psychopathy and APD are different labels for the same construct a. The fact is, they are distinct 7. Psychopaths are all intelligent 8. Psychopaths are untreatable 9. Psychopathic traits can’t be measured through self report instruments 10. Psychopaths don’t know the difference between right and wrong a. They do, but they don't’ care In cases of murder: - Psychopaths have multiple victims, stranger victims (they don’t know them), male victims and deny responsibility, motivated by revenge or material gain Blais, Solodukhin, Forth (2014) - found that psychopathy was related to both reactive and instrumental violence - The interpersonal features (factor 1) were most strongly related to the use of instrumental violence and factor 2 (social deviance) was most strongly related to the use of reactive violence. Psychopathic homicide offenders - Are more likely to engage in instrumental homicide as compared to non psychopathic homicide offenders Instrumental violence: Refers to violence that is employed as a means to attain a subsidiary goal Reactive violence: a response to a perceived threat or provocation Psychopathy and violence Violence is more likely to be: - Predatory - Instrumental - Callous - Calculated - Not reactive in nature - Target strangers - Vindictive or opportunistic Psychopaths in the community - Most community research uses self report scales or Hare Psychopathy Checklist Screening version - 12 item version takes less time and emphasizes criminal behaviour more than PCL-R - Not all psychopaths are violent offenders and not all end up in jail - Paul Babiak - Employees with psychopathic features are the roots of company problems - Good at manipulating key players and blaming others for their failure - One study found 5% of their sample of corporate professions met the criteria for psychopathy - Psychopathic professionals tend to have - Poor management and performance appraisals - Better creativity - Stronger communication - Less likely to be team players - There’s little research on people’s understanding of psychopathy - Study asked jury duty to provide examples of psychopathic individuals in society - Majority of people identified serial, mass murderers, or fictional killers when asked who the first person that comes to mind as a typical psychopath is - Primary source of information came from movies and TV shoes - Many people understood the range of psychopathic traits but a lot of them described symptoms of psychosis Psychopaths and victims - To this day, there’s one study exploring the experiences of victims of psychopaths - identified personality characteristics of non incarcerated male psychopaths in straight relationships and found that women: - Were manipulated into being victims - Were lied to - Economically abused - Emotionally abused - Ment had multiple infidelities - Were isolated - Their children were mistreated Psychopathy and sexual violence - Psychopathy is weakly associated with sexual offenses - Psychopathy is related to number of previous violent offenses, but not related to previous sexual offenses - One explanation is because of the high rate of sexual offending found in child molesters, who tend not to have psychopathic traits - Offenders who commit sexual homicide score higher on psychopathy - Mixed sexual offenders (offenders who assault adult and children) are the most psychopathic offenders, rapists have the lowers psychopathy scores - Compared to sex offenders, child molesters have the lowest psychopathy scores - Psychopathic sexual offenders are more likely to be vindictive and opportunistic, whereas non psychopathic rapists are more likely to report feeling anxious Sexual sadism: people who are sexually aroused by fantasies,urges, or acts of inflicting pain, suffering, or humiliation on another person - PCL-R total scores, affective deficits facets, and antisocial facets were all related to sexual sadism. Psychopaths Paris Bennet Admits he murdered his sister to punish his mother - Loved his sister but couldn’t describe it, can’t feel it - Lack of empathy is classic psychopathic trait - He murdered his sister to punish his mom  - Felt alone as a child, left out, by family and peers - Mom believed he was treated well, loved by everyone, she was a present mother, not sure why he felt that way - Paris doesn’t think he’s accomplished something or achieved a goal - Says that he’s a different person now - doesn’t understand why he did it Peak into the mind of a cold blooded killer - documentary - Planned to kill his brother - Took his bike and brother chased him, he kicked him off a roof and fell onto the rakes - Psychopaths: Dangerous pattern of behaviour - Psychopath is born not made, malfunction of brain - They don’t experience emotion, empathy, and love, in the same way we do - You could grow up in a nurturing home and still end up as a psychopath - You can’t cause environmentally - But childhood could affect it (abuse, shocking, violence) - not enough to automatically turn you into psychopath - Combination of genes that create a predisposition for this - Engage in a variety of crime (sex, property, manipulative) - Can only do research on psychopaths in prison right now - Majority of people in prison aren’t psychopaths - How to determine who are the psychopath - Major breakthrough - psychology checklist (robert hare) - Uniformity in the diagnostic process - When a researcher in canada defines a psychopath, and an england, you know you’re talking about the same disorder - Robert Hare - Combination of characteristics - Created psychopathy checklist - Carefully structured interview with character traits of psychopaths - Determines if someone is or isn’t psychopathic - Common characteristics more than 26 out of 40 is required for diagnosis - You have to have a cluster, combination of characteristics that hang together - OJ simpsons - features of psychopathy - Psychopaths exist everywhere - hard to tell (CEO) - In a business context: - Bumping into VP on purpose, pretend like he had secret information. Made people think he was in the know - Charming - 30/40 - Industrial psychopath - characteristics re positive business asset - Gifted at convincing people that they’re harmless, constantly monitoring other people and tailor what they say to get the response they want - Canadian psychopaths are more superficial (easier to tell) than UK - Brain imaging research show that psychopaths have difficulty in processing emotional processes  - Tested psychopaths reaction to emotive worlds - White is active processing, psychopaths have much less emotional involvement - Can’t process emotions - Neutral vs intense emotional feelings - observe brain activation - Amygdala - crucial for emotional learning, fear - Measures emotional reaction to certain pictures of facial expressions - Bob hare believes it's more complex than Amygdala - Prefrontal cortex in psychopaths - Regulates and controls behaviour - Part of brain that tells you to stop and think about the behaviour before you do it - Dysfunctional or damaged in psychopaths - Important relationship with Prefrontal cortex and amygdala - Treatment: - Standard programs are ineffective because they’re targeting the wrong thing, trying to target increasing someone's capacity for feeling empathy with a psychopath - Poor amygdala functioning, medication that boosts amygdala could make psychopaths safer to be around - Replace dysfunctional brain mechanisms with microchips - First microchip brain implant - Moral and ethical issue - do we intervene with psychopaths and change them completely, change their brains - 2 sides: - Shouldnt’ interfere with biological nature of god given human - Psychopaths are making major problems and no matter how radical the solution, we have to do something about it Psychopathy and treatment - Best known study of treatment outcome in psychopaths was a retrospective study by Rice, Harris, and Cormier (1992) Investigated effects of an intensive therapeutic program on violent psychopathic and nonpsychopathic forensic psychiatric patients. Conclusion: Treatment reduced violent reoffending in non psychopaths but increased it in psychopaths. clinicians argue that treating psychopaths may be counterproductive, and worsen their behavior Cautioned against interpreting the results of studies that are carried out by Rice and colleagues Although it implies that psychopaths are untreatable, it’s possible that treatments for psychopaths that have been tried thus far, just haven’t worked ○ Reasons include the using inappropriate treatments and problems when implementing the treatment (inadequate training of those administering it or lack of support from management) Sewall and Olver (2019) have a more promising treatment  ○ found that psychopathic sex offenders who dropped out of treatment were more likely to violently reoffend ○ psychopathic sex offenders who stayed in treatment were less likely to violently reoffend ○ Strongly related to dropping out Psychopathy and law enforcement  - One of law enforcements greatest challenges - Engage in high rates of crimes, including violent offences - Almost half of police killers (people who killed officers) had traits consistent with psychopathy - Challenge is finding effective interrogation methods, Psychopathic suspects are difficult to interrogate, they are more likely to engage in these behaviours during interrogation: - Try to outwit the interrogator - consider it a “game” to win - Attempt to control the interrogation - turn the tables and become the interrogator - Aren’t fooled by bluffs - good at conning others and may see through the interrogators attempts to get a confession - Enjoy being the focus of investigation - act like its a press conference - Attempt to shock - they may speak in a matter of fact manner about how they have treated other people Quayle offered several suggestions for interviewing a psychopathic suspect including - Ensuring case familiarity (interrogators should be very familiar with the evidence to counteract the psychopaths deceitfulness) - Convey experience and confidence (interrogators need to be able to control the interview and create an atmosphere of authority) - Show liking or admiration (psychopaths respond well when they think you want to learn for them) - Avoid criticism (they might become hostile and stop the interview) - Avoid conveying emotions (interrogators should avoid conveying their own emotions about the offence or lack of progress in the case) Christopher Porco - 21 year old university student - Convicted of first degree murder of his dad and attempted murder of his mom - He had many psychopathic traits that investigators failed to take into account during their interrogation - Initially, investigators appealed to porco’s feelings of remorse and empathy and encouraged him to confess - When this strategy failed, they became more confrontational and made Porco demand a lawyer - He continues to deny responsibilities but police believe he killed them to prevent them from disclosing his frauds to authorities What Makes Them Tick? Cognitive and Affective Models of Psychopathy - 2 main theories to understand the development of psychopathy - cognitive or affective processes 1. Response modulation deficit theory - cognitive - This theory explains that psychopaths have a difficulty using peripheral or contextual cues (information that is not directly related to their immediate goal) to adjust or modify their behavior in response to external feedback. -  - If psychopaths engage in a rewarded behaviour, they will not pay attention to other information that might inhibit their behaviour (punishment or peoples dissaproval) - This theory has been used to explain why psychopaths fail to learn to avoid punishment (if they get punished, they don’t pay attention to the punishment) 2. Affective theory of psychopathy - This theory posits that psychopaths have a deficit in experiencing certain emotions, which are key to guiding prosocial behaviors (behaviors that benefit others) and inhibiting antisocial or deviant behaviors. - Hervey Cleckley: psychopaths have a emotional deficit that involves the disconnec-tion between cognitive-linguistic processing and emotional experience. - Williamson, Harpur, Hare administered lexical decision task to psychopathic and nonpsychopathic offenders - emotional words (e.g., cancer), neutral words (e.g., tree), and nonwords (e.g., cercan), words were presented briefly on a screen and participants indicated as quickly as possible whether the word on the screen was a word - Non psychopaths processed emotional words faster - Psychopaths had the same reaction time to emotional vs non emotional - Concluded that psychopaths brainwave activity didn’t differentiate between emotional and neutral words - Researchers have used measured Affective processing in various ways: Blair, Budhani, College, and Scott (2005): tested children to see if they could recognize emotions in neutral words spoken with different tones (happy, disgust, anger, sadness, fear). Boys with psychopathic traits had trouble recognizing fearful tones. - Amygdala: part of the limbic centre of the brain, which regulates expression of emotion and emotional memory  - It’s also responsible for memory, control of the autonomic nervous system, aggression, decision making, approach and avoidance behaviour, and defence reactions - researchers hypothesize that a dysfunction in amygdala is responsible for psychopaths blunted emotional reactions - Recently, Newman, Curtin, Bertsch, and Baskin-Sommers (2010) argued that the emotional deficits seen in psychopaths can be explained by an attention deficit and are not due to an amygdala-mediated deficit Does family matter? - Best family background predictors of developing psychopathy in adulthood are - Criminal parents - Uninvolved father - Low income - Disputed family life - Physical neglect - Best research method to see if family experiences are related to the development of psychopathy is a prospective longitudinal study - Follow young children throughout their childhood, adolescence, and into adulthood, measuring family background with variables and psychopathic traits - Adv: allows researchers to avoid retrospective biased (tendency to reconstruct pas events so they’re consistent with an individual's current beliefs) and to establish causal order Study by Weiler and Widom (1996): Compared 900+ abused/neglected children (pre-age 11) with a control group. Followed over 20 years using a modified PCL-R. Abused children had slightly higher psychopathy scores compared to the control group. Key Takeaways: No single family variable or combination fully explains psychopathy development. Developmental pathways to psychopathy: ○ Some involve family background factors. ○ Others emerge independently of family background. Psychopathy - James fallon - Blind experiment of analyzing brain scans - Analyzes genetics, interaction with environment, brain damage and how that machine works - Interaction of genes→ epigenetic effect (genes, brain damage and environment) and how these are tied, how you end up with a psychopath is the time that the damage occurs - Murderers/serial killers had damage to orbital cortex (above eyes) and interior part of temporal - Everyone had all sorts of brain damage - Major violence jeans (MAOA gene) - variant is in normal population  - sex linked, on the X chromosome - You can only get from mother - Why men are psychopathic killers and aggressive - Daughters get one X from mom and one X from dad so it gets diluted out - Son only gets X from mother - To express the gene in a violent way you have to be involved in very traumatic stress very early on before puberty - If you have the gene and you see a lot of violence, that’s the recipe for disaster - Areas in the world with constant violence and you have generations of kids that are seeing all the violence, hey find each other, and concentrate the genes Psychopathy in youth - Research is becoming more focused on identifying psychopathic traits in youth - Assumes that traits don’t suddenly appear in adulthood, but are gradually developed from environmental and biological conditions - 2 ways to assess psychopathic traits in youth: 1. Antisocial process screening device a. Observer rating scale to assess psychopathic traits in children (frick and Hare, 2003) b. The child is assigned a rating on various questions by parents or teachers. c. A self-report version of this scale also has been developed for use with adolescents. Frick, Bodin, and Barry (2000) found that the APSD has a three- dimensional structure consisting of a callous-unemotional factor, an impulsivity factor, and a narcissism fact d. Hare psychopathy checklist: youth version:  i. rating scale designed to measure psychopathic traits and behaviours in male and female adolescents between the ages of 12 and 18. How stable are psychopathic traits? Psychopathy in adults: Linked to violence, seen as stable, and resistant to intervention. Youth psychopathic traits: ○ Fairly high stability over 4 years (Frick et al., 2003). ○ Moderate stability observed from ages 13–24 (Lynam et al., 2007). ○ Moderate stability from childhood to age 48, with the largest changes during adolescence (Bergstrøm et al., 2016). Adolescence might inflate psychopathy scores, but community studies show low psychopathy scores in youth (Forth et al., 2003; Sevecke et al., 2009). Psychopathy Traits in Youth Responsiveness to Intervention Youth with psychopathic traits may respond better to interventions compared to adults: ○ Intensive treatment: Youth receiving intensive treatment had lower violent reoffense rates compared to those in standard correctional treatment (Caldwell et al., 2006, 2007). ○ Callous-Unemotional (CU) traits and parent-focused interventions: CU traits linked to poor eye contact and reduced empathy development (Dadds et al., 2012, 2014). Parent–Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT): 21-week program improves parent–child relationships, reduces conduct problems, and increases empathy (Kimonis et al., 2018). Key Research Findings - Psychopathic traits in youth show moderate stability, especially during adolescence. - Early interventions targeting empathy and parent–child relationships show promise. - Long-term effectiveness of interventions and sustained behavior changes need further research. - Psychopathy in adults associated with violence, is assumed to be a stable trait, and is resistant to intervention attempts - Several issues with labelling a youth as a psychopath - Are psychopathic traits in youth stable? - Fairly high stability across 4 year period - Moderate degree of stability in ages 13-24 - Are measures of psychopathy in youth assessing characteristics of adolescence?  - Youth who score high on PCL:YV: - Begin criminal behaviour younger - Engage in more violence - Are at greater risk to reoffend once released - Psychopathic traits are linked with delinquency and aggression, not anxiety and depression Parent child interaction therapy: intervention focuses on increasing the parent child relationship using positive reinforcements and teaching positive parenting strategies Psychopathy label - Edens and colleagues (2005): Students presented with information on a defendant who was either psychopathic, psychotic, or no mental illness - Mock juror were more likely to choose death penalty for psychopathic offenders - Less likely to support death penalty for juveniles - Defendants described as psychopaths were rated as less credible compared to other defendants - Defendants described as psychopaths were more likely to be found guilty and were rated as higher risk for future violence and recidivism - Age or sex of defendant didn’t influence mock jurors Antisocial personality disorder - Previously psychopaths or sociopaths - 3:1 male female ratio - Lack a conscience - Fail to respond to punishment - Incapable of true emotions - Charming and manipulative - Diagnosis - at least 18 years old with antisocial behaviour before 15 Paul Bernardo Bernardo and Kayla Homolka - He was a serial rapist and murderer - Scored 24/40 on PCL - St. Catharine’s, Ontario in the early 1990’s - High School girls started going missing Psychopathy: Nature vs nurture Nature: innate characteristics Nurture: personal experiences - Evidence shows a strong genetic contribution to psychopathy - Researchers compare individuals who have similar genes but raised in different environments - Identical twins (identical genes) can be compared when raised apart from eachother - This method holds genetic influences constant while allowing the environment to vary  - Twins are usually compared with randomly paired individuals - Fraternal twins (share half their genes) raised together can be compared with identical twins raised together - Biological siblings (share half their genes) raised together can be compared with adoptive siblings (share no genes but share environment) Psychopathy: Nature versus Nurture Nature vs. Nurture Debate: ○ Examines the importance of innate characteristics (nature) vs. personal experiences (nurture). ○ Psychopathy has strong genetic contributions, supported by growing evidence. Research Methods: Studies compare people with different genetic backgrounds in similar or different environments: ○ Identical twins raised apart vs. fraternal twins raised together. ○ Biological siblings vs. adoptive siblings raised in the same home. Twin Studies on Psychopathy: Twin studies are key to understanding the genetic side of psychopathy. Findings show a strong genetic influence on psychopathic traits: ○ Blonigen et al. (2006): Identical twins were more alike in psychopathy scores than fraternal twins, showing genetics matter. ○ Larsson et al. (2006): A study of Swedish teens showed a strong genetic influence. ○ Tuvblad et al. (2014): In U.S. teens, genetics explained 69% of the difference in psychopathy scores. ○ Viding et al. (2005): A study of 7-year-olds in the U.K. found that callous-unemotional traits (key traits of psychopathy) are highly heritable. Role of Environment: Environmental factors (like family background) still play a role in how genetic traits show up in behavior. Conclusion: Psychopathy is strongly influenced by genetics, but environmental factors also shape how these traits are expressed. Summary - Psychopathy is a personality disorder defined by a cluster of interpersonal, affective, and behavioural features. Psychopathy, sociopathy, and antisocial personality disorder are overlapping but distinct constructs.  - Hare Psychopathy Checklist Revised (PCL-R) is the most popular tool to measure psychopathic traits in adults - Hare Psychopathy Checklist: Youth version is an adaptation of PCL-$ for use with adolescents - There’s also self report measures to assess psychopathic traits in communities - Psychopaths begin their criminal career earlier, persist long, and are more violent and versatile than other offenders - They commit reactive and instrumental violence - Most murders are instrumental - Psychopaths are hard to treat. They’re not motivated to change their behaiour and providing wrong treatments can result in high rates of violent reoffendending - Some research has been more promising, especially with adolescent offenders with psychopathic features - Research has been increasingly focused on identifying psychopathic traits in youth, assessment instruments have been developed to measure psychopathic traits in children and adolescents with some success - There’s issues surrounding labelling youth as psychopaths 1. The issue of labelling youth as a psychopath 2. Stability of psychopathic traits from late childhood to early adulthood 3. Possibility that characteristics of psychopathy are common features of normally developing youth - 2 main prominent theories of psychopathy emphasize cognitive or affective processes - Newman and colleagues have proposed that psychopaths have a response modulation deficit - They fail to use contextual cues that are peripheral to a dominant response set to modulate their behaviour - Other theory is that they have a deficit in the experience of certain critical emotions that guide prosocial behaviour and inhibit deviance - Related to amygdala dysfunction Psychopathy: personality disorder defined by a collection of interpersonal, affect, and behavioural characteristics, including manipulation, lack of empathy, and impulsivity. - different descriptions of psychopathy exist in most cultures - they seek vulnerable victims to use for their own benefit Sexual violence Sexual assault: Any nonconsensual sexual act by either a male or female person to either a male or female person, regardless of the relationship between the people involved Three levels: 1. Simple sexual assault - Assault committed in circumstances of a sexual nature such as the sexual integrity of the victin is violated - Level 1 involves minor physical injuries or no injuries to the victim - Maximum sentence: 10 years 2. Sexual assault with a weapon or causing bodily harm a. Sexual assault with a weapon, threat, or causing bodily harm b. Maximum sentence: 14 years 3. Aggravated sexual assault a. Sexual assault that results in wounding, maiming, disfiguiring, or endangering the life of the victim b. Maximum sentence: life imprisonment Extent of sexual offending 20,735 sexual assaults in 2014 4452 sexual assaults against children in 2014 The rate of sexual assault in Aboriginal populations is double the rate compared to non-Aboriginal populations Inaccurate official estimates because majority of victims don’tt report the crime ○ Adults don’t report for the following reasons ○ Victims don’t feel like the matter is important enough ○ Fear of revenge by offender ○ Don’t believe police will find the offender ○ Don’t want to get the offender in trouble ○ Fear of shame or dishonour to their family ○ Matter is personal and don’t want people to know ○ Don’t want to deal with the hassle of court proceedings ○ Child victims don’t report for the following reasons ○ Fear what will happen to them or their parents ○ Don’t think people will believe them  ○ Believe they are to be blamed for some reason ○ They were not aware that what was happening was unacceptable Female military members are more likley to expereince sexual misconduct than males High rates of sexual miscodnuct in the military is due to the patriarchal structure, entitlement, alcohol use, and cultural acceptance Rapists usually have multiple victims Rapists have 7 victims on average, female victim child molesters have 20, and male victim child milesters average 150 victims Facts that increase risk of experiencing sexual misconduct - Female - Young - Single - Indigenous - Disabled - LGBTQ+ - Highly educated - Junior noncomissioned forces member Consequences for victims - Rape trauma syndrome: describes psychological alter effects of rape - Burgess and Holmstrom interviewed 146 women who have been raped - First interview was within 30 minutes of women arriving at the hospital, second interview was one month later - Effects were divided into 2 phases - Acute phase: - lasted for few days-weeks and symptoms were severe - heighented levels of fear, anxiety, depression - Victims of rape asked about why the rape happened to them and engaged in self blame - Long term phase: - Can last for few months-years - development of phobias (Fear of being left alone or leaving the house), development of sexual problems and depression, chronic physical health problems (back pain, muscle tension), etc - Victims are at high risk of psychopathy (depression, anxiety, alcohol abuse, strongest effect is PTSD) - 4 symptoms (1) Avoidance of stimuli (2) Recurring distressing memories (3) A negatively altered cognition and mood (4) Altered state of arousal and reactivity - Victims who were assaulted by strangers, with weapons, or physical injury had the most negative consequences Why does sexual assault have such a strong impact on victims? Dworkin and colleagues propose 4 potential reasons 1. Sexual assault often co-occurs with other forms of trauma (intimate partner violence, chlild sexual abuse) 2. Sexual assault victims may receieve less support after the victimation compared to other trauma victims 3. Sexual assault victims might have pre existing psychopathologies that could increase the risk of post trauma psychopathology 4. Sexual assault is of a personal nature and that form of violation is uniquely related to increased psychopathology - Rothbaum, Foa, Riggs, Murdock, and Walsh (1992) assessed the PTSD symptoms in 95 female rape victims over a nine-month follow-up period. - One month after the rape, 65 percent of victims were diagnosed with PTSD - Nine months 47 percent were classified as having PTSD - Some victims continue to experience PTSD symptoms years after the rape - In one study, 16.5 percent of rape victims had PTSD 15 years after the rape - There’s also a societal cost: medical cost, lost wages for victims, cost of legal system Myths: 1. Sexual assault is not a common problem 2. Its mostly committed by strangers 3. Women “ask for it” by the way they dress 4. Avoid being alone in dark deserted places 5. Women derive pleasure from being a victim 6. Women lie about sexual assault Classification of sexual offenders 1. Voyeurs a. Obtains sexual gratification by observing unsuspecting people (usually strangers) who are naked, in the process of undressing, or engaging in the sexual activitu 2. Exhibitionists a. Obtains sexual gratification by exposing their genetils to strangers 3. Rapists a. Sexually assault victims over 16 4. Pedophiles a. Adults who’s primary sexual orientation is towards children 5. Child molesters a. People who have actually sexually molested a child b. NOT a synonym to pedophile (1) Intra familiar (incest offender) (a) Sexually abuse their biological children or children that they assume a parental role (stepfather, boyfriend) (2) Extra familial (a) Sexually abuse children outside their family Rapist Typologies The Revised Rapist Typology, Version 3 (MTC:R3; Knight & Prentky, 1990) - 5 primary subtypes of rapists based on motivational differences 1. Opportunistic a. Impulsive, doesn’t include sexual fantasies, controlled by situational/contextual factors, void of gratuitous violence b. Usually engage in other criminal behaviour (break into a home with intention of stealing but rapes the female) 2. Pervasively angry a. High level of anger towards men and women b. Impulsive, use unnecessary force, cause serious victim injury, void of sexual fantasies 3. Sexual a. Primarly motivated by sexual preoccupation or fantasies 4. Sadistic a. Must be a sadistic element to the offence 5. Vindictive a. Rapists anger is solely focused on women b. Not impulsive or preoccupied by sexual fantasies c. Goal is to demean and degrade victim - Research shows that psychopathic rapists are more likley to be opportunistic and pervasively angry Most recent version: MTC:R4 (Knight 2010) - Includes psychopathy dimensions - Describes rapists across 3 dimensions 1. Callous manipulative 2. Impulsive antisocial 3. hypersexual Groth (1979) suggested 3 main types of rapists: 1. Anger rapist (most common - 50%) a. Use of more force than necessary to obtain compliance and engagement in a variety of sexual acts to degrade the victim b. High levels of anger directed solely toward women c. Not being motivated primarily by sexual gratification d. Most of these rapes are precicpated by conflict or perceieved humiliation by some significant women such as offenders wife, mother boss 2. Power rapist (~40% of rapists). a. Features: b. Intention to assert dominance and control over the victim c. Vary in amount of force used depending on the degree of submission shown by the victim. d. Not being motivated primarily by sexual gratification e. Frequent rape fantasies  3. Sadistic rapist (least common - 5-10%) a. Features: b. Obtaining sexual gratification by hurting the victim c. High levels of victim injury, including torture and sometimes death d. Frequent violent sexual fantasies - There is considerable overlap between MTC:R3 and Groth typologies - Both describe sadistic rapist - Vindictive similar to anger - Pervasively angry similar to power Is resisting sexual attack a good idea? - Depends on type of rapist under consideration - Nonresitenace strategies (pleading, crying, reasoning) are more likely to avoid being raped than resistang - Victims who attempted to resist were more likely to be physically injured and blame themselves for the attack Child molester typologies Groth’s typology of the fixated and regressed child molester (Groth, Hobson, & Gary, 1982) - developed his typology based on research with incarcerated child molesters - Fixated child molesters - Child molester who has a long-standing, exclusive sexual preference for children. - Sexual interest in children begins in adolescence and is persistent - Male children are their primary target - Precipitating stress is not evident - Their offences are planned. - Emotionally immature, poor social skills, usually single. - Usually, no history of alcohol or drug abuse. - Often feel no remorse or distress over their behavior. - Regressed child molesters - Primary sexual orientation is toward adults - Sexual interest in children begins in adulthood and is episodic (treatment can lower rates of recidivism) - Victims are intra familial male and female children - Precipitation stress and feelings of inadequacy are usually present - Offences are often impulsive - They are often married and are having marital problems - Many of their offences are related to alcohol use - More likely to report feeling remorse for their behaviour Subdivided into 2 types based on coercion - Sex pressure - Sex force: exploitative and sadistic type Adolescent sex offenders: - Adolescents commit - 20% of rapes - 30-50% of child sexual abuse - History of sexual abuse history is common - Majority of sexually abused children don’t become sexual offenders Sexual Objectification in Computer Games and Sexual Assault Myths: Is There a Link? Female sex offenders - Only 2.5% of incarcerated sex offenders are female - Sexual abuse by females are underestimated - Women can mask their sexually abusive behaviours through caregiving activties - Women target their own children who are unlikel to disclose abuse - Boys are more frequent targets than girls and are less likely to disclose the abuse - Atkinson (1996) proposed 4 types (1) teacher/lover (a) These offenders initiate sexual abuse of a male adolescent that the relate as a peer (b) Offender is in position of authority/power (c) Unknown how common because victims rarelyu report (d) This type hasn’t experienced childhood sexual abuse although substance abuse is common (e) Not aware that behaviour is inappropriate (f) Describe themselves as “in love” with the victim (g) Victims often report that they voluntarily participated and don’t feel victimized (2) Male coerced (a) Offenders are coerced or forced into sexual abuse by a male who they are in an abusive relationship with (b) Victim is often the female offenders daughter (c) unassertive , low self esteem, relatively passive partners in the abuse (3) Male accompanied (a) Offenders engage in sexual abuse with a male partner (b) They are more willing to participate than the male coerced type (c) Victims are in and outside the family (4) Predisposed (a) Predisposed offenders usually have a long history of being sexually and physically abused as a child, being sexually victimized as an adult, and having mental health difficulties throughout their lifetime (b) This type of offender normally acts alone  (c) They might abuse very young children who are part of their family (d) She sometimes also physically abuses, and she might have sexual fantasies that involve children Solo offenders vs co offenders - Research studying difference between solo female offenders (whoa ct alone) and co offender (act with accomplices) - Recently, ten Bensel, Gibbs, and Burkey (2019) examined offender and offence characteristics of 144 solo female offenders and 79 female co-offenders. - Table 14.2 summarizes the similarities and differences between solo and co-offenders. The groups did not differ significantly on the following features: race, drug or alcohol abuse, sex abuse victim, or mental health history. However, they did differ significantly on all the other features. One consistent finding across studies is that solo offenders are more likely to sexually assault male nonrelative victims, whereas co-offenders are more likely to have female relative victims Aboriginal sex offenders - Lack of research but 40% of aboriginal offender population commited sexual offences - Aboriginal sexual offenderds tend to - Have longer criminal and substance abuse histories - Lower educaiton - Higher unemployment rates Correctional Service of Canada (CSC, 2013) study found: - 89% of Aboriginal sexual offenders were under the influence of alcohol - Aboriginal offenders were less likely to have male victims - Less likely to victimize children - Most victims of Aboriginal offenders are known and are part of the Aboriginal community Theories of sexual aggression - Proposed 4 pre conditions for child molestation to occur  - Offender must be motivated to sexually abuse - Motivation is due to 3 factors (1) Emotional congruence (offenders desire for the child to satisfy an emotional need) (2) Sexual attraction to the child (3) Blockage of emotional outlets for offender to meet sexual and emotional needs - Lack of internal inhibitions - Alcohol and impulse control problems can weaken offenders ability to restrain behaviours that lead to abuse - Overcome external inhibitors - Ex: offender needs to create an opportunity to be alone with the child - Overcome childs resistance - Offenders will reward the child with attention or bribes to encourage the child to cooperate - Some offenders use threat of harm More theories of sexual aggression Marshall and Barbaree (1990) - Integrated model of sexual aggression - Includes biological factors, childhood experiences, sociocultural influences, and situational events - Argue that males learn to inhibit sexually aggresive behaviour through a socialization process that promotes the development of strong positive attachments - Suggest that offenders fail to acquire effective inhibitory control because they experienced childhood abuse or because they were raised in dysfunctional families - They acknowledged the importance of the structure of society that reinforces the use of aggression and the acceptance of negative attitudes toward women Ward and Siegert (2002) - Used theories described to develop the pathways model - Proposed 5 casual pathways for the development of sexual offending against children 1. Intimacy and social skill deficits (impoverished ability to function socially within adult relationships) 2. Deviant thorugh processes (abnormal preferences for children) 3. Poor emotional regulation (inability to recognize or express emotions) 4. Antisocial cognitions (attitudes and beliefs supporting offending) 5. Multiple dysfunctional pathway that combines the risk factors from other pathways - This model proposes that situational stressors act as triggers for sexual offending and the triggers vary across pathways - Little empirical support Leader (2011) - Found evidence for ⅗ pathways (intimacy deficits, antisocial cognitions, multiple dysfunction pathways) Evolutionary theories of sexual agression Quinsey and Lalumiere (1995) - Evolutionary theory of sexual offending - Focuses on how behaviour s the product of our ancestral history and how features that are related to reproductive success become more frequent - Quinsey provided a clear example of a mating strategy that wouldn’t be successful: “Consider a man in an ancestral environment who preferred trees as sexual partners. We can surmise that this man is very unlikely to be among our ancestors if his tree preference was caused by genes, because these genes would decrease in frequency over generations” (p. 2). - Quinsey and others view rape as a Consequence of a mating strategy that resulted in a reproductive advantage Treatment of sexual offenders - Most treatment programs focus on: - Recognizing denial, minimizations, and cognitive distortions - Sex offenders often deny that they did the crime or fail to take full respomsibility for their sexual offending (claim that victim consented) - Assessments of denial and acceptance responsibility are done through self report questionnaires like the Clarke Sex History Questionnairs or by comparisons of police and victim reports with what the offenders admit in interviews - Cognitive distortions: deviant cognitions, values, and beliefs, that the sexual offender uses to justify deviant behaviours - Ex: a child molester might state “Having sex with a child in a loving relationship is a good way to teach a child about sex,” or an incest offender might claim, “It was better for her to have her first sexual experience with me since I love her, rather than with some teenager who would just want to use her.” - Both these child molesters are reporting cognitive distortions that are self-serving and inhibit them from taking full responsibility for their offences. - Empathy training - Some sex offenders have general deficit in empathy most have a specific deficit in empathy towards their victim - Cognitive distortions can cause empathy problems in sexual offenders - Becuase they minimize the harm caused, they don’t think the victim has suffered and don’t empathize with them - Measures of empathy use self report scales - Rape Empathy Scale and interviews - Empathy training focuses on getting the offender to understand the impact of the abuse on the victim and the pain caused, and to develop feelings such as remorse. - Offenders read survivor accounts of rape and child abuse and compare these accounts with how their victim likely felt  - Videos of victims describing the emotional damage they have suffered and the long-term problems they experience - Some therapy programs use role-playing, with the offender taking the part of the victim. - controversial, some programs may have sexual offenders meet with adult survivors of rape or child sexual abuse. Only offenders who are demonstrating empathy are permitted to take part in these meetings - Enhancing social skills - Offenders usually lack social skills (self confidence in interpersonal relationship, capacity for intimacy, assertiveness) - Self report questionnaire, interviews, responses to scenarios have been developed to asses social skill deficit - Treatment programs vary in terms of which social skill deficits are target (some focus on anger and communication, others target relationship skills and self esteem) - Treating substance abuse problems - Some offenders use alcohol to facilitate offendeing by reducing inhibitions - Self report measures are used to assess problems with alcohol and drugs - Referred to substance use programs - Modifying deviant sexual interests - Penile phallometry: A measurement device placed around the penis to measure changes in sexual arousal - Popular method to assess deviant sexual interests - Present child molesters with photos of naked males and children and rapists recorded descriptions of nondeviant and deviant sexual behaviour - Phallometric assessments have been used to differentiate extra-familial child molesters from nonoffenders. However, most intra- familial child molesters do not differ in their phallometric responses from nonoffend- ers - The largest group differences between rapists and nonrapists are identified when participants are presented with vignettes involving the presence or absence of consent. Specifically, rapists appear to respond more favour- ably to situations involving nonconsensual sex than nonrapists - - Aversion therapy: The pairing of an aversive stimuli with a deviant fantasy for the purpose of reducing the attractiveness of these deviant fantasies - Technique to train offenders to eliminate deviant thoughts and interests and increase frequency of appropriate sexual thoughts and interests - Goal is to reduce attractiveness of deviant fantasies by pariting them with negative effects - Mastirbatory satiation: the offender is told to masturbate to ejaculation to a nondeviant fantasy. After ejaculation, he is told to switch to a deviant fantasy, thus pairing the inability to become aroused to this deviant fantasy. - the effectiveness of these techniques to change deviant sexual interests has been questioned by several researchers  - Pharmacological interventions are effective - The use of selective serotonin-reuptake inhibi- tors is shown to be most effective for sexual offenders with paraphilia - Relapse prevention - Sexual offenders need to identify their offence cycle (e.g., emotional states and stress factors that put them at risk, grooming strategies) and develop ways to avoid these problems or to deal with them. Programs consists of 2 main parts: 1. Offenders list emotional and situational risk facts that lead to fantasizing or offending (ex: feeling lonely, feelings of anger towards women, watching children at a park) 2. Offenders develop plans to deal more appropriately with their problems and avoid or cope with high risk situations One of the most well designed treatment outcome studies to examine effectiess of relapse prevention (Marques, Wiederanders, Day, Nelson, & Van Ommeren, 2005) - This treatment program included random assignment of volunteer inpatient sexual offenders to a relapse-prevention treat- ment (RP group) and a no-treatment condition; matching the groups on age, crimi- nal history, and type of sexual offence; a two-year cognitive treatment program that was based on RP; and a one-year aftercare program after release. Positive effects were found with those in the RP treatment group showing greater acceptance of responsibility and reduced deviant sexual arousal; however, there was no group difference in sexual recidivism rates Self regualtion - Some treatment emphasizes self regulation model - Focuses on motivation for why sexual offenders engage in offending and proposes different pathways to offending - good lives model (GLM; Ward & Gannon, 2006; Ward & Stewart, 2003) has become increasing popular in sexual offender treatment programs. The GLM is a strengths-based approach that focuses on having sexual offenders develop and implement meaningful life plans that are incompatible with future offending. Sex offender registry of Ontario - 2004 - Canadian government created National sex offender registry to provide police with quick acccess to information about convicted sexual offender - Goal is to help police when investigating sexual crimes to identify sexual offenders who live near the crime scene - Data indicates that a rapid response during an investigation of child abduction for a sexual purpose is critical. - In 80% of child abduction cases, initial contact of an offender with a victim occurs within a quarter mile of the victim’s last known location. What informaiton dos the registry contain? - Vehicla information - Register canadians who are convicted of sexual offences in other countries (phone number, address, history, identifying marks - tattoos, scars, photos) What prompted the development of the registry? - Muder of 11 year old Christopher’s Law by paroled child molster Joseph Fredericks - Following the Coroner’s inquest into Christopher’s death, it was recommended that the Solicitor General of Canada establish a registry for convicted, dangerous, high-risk sexual offenders, and require each offender to register with police in the jurisdiction where the offender will reside or is residing. - Ontario proclaimed Christopher’s Law (Sex Offender Registry), 2000 on April 23, 2001, making the province the first jurisdiction in Canada to establish a sex offender registry. Who has access to the registry  - The public does not have access to the OSOR, only law enforcement - Police have direct access to the OSOR 24/7, improving their ability to investigate sex-related crimes as well as monitor and locate sex offenders in the community. Do public registries make communities safer? - No - Instils false sense of security - No decline in frequency of sexual offending in areas where registries are public Of those victims who were murdered: - 44% were murdered within 1 hour after abduction - 74% were murdered within 3 hours after abduction - 91% were murdered within 24 hours after abduction Any person who is resident in Ontario and has been: - convicted anywhere in Canada of a “sex offence” as defined in christophers law - Found not criminally responsible for a “sex offence” by reason of mental disorder and given an absolute or conditional discharge Christopher’s law Invitation to sexual touching Sexual exploitation of person with disability Incest Bestiality Bestiality in presence of a child Voyeurism Access child pornography Parent or guardian procuring sexual activity Luring a child by means of computer system Exposure to person under age 14 Stupefying or overpowering for the purpose of sexual intercourse Living on the avails of prostitution of a person under 18 Obtaining prostitution of person under 18 Sexual assault Reporting period - An offender has a reporting obligation of: - 10 years - if the maximum sentence is less than 10 years and conviction is for only one sex offence - Life - if convicted of more than one sex offence or a single offence for which the maximum sentence is more than 10 years Penalties for non-compliance - First offence: A fine not more than $25,000 and/or imprisonment of not more than one year  - Subsequent offence: A fine not more than $25,000 and/or imprisonment not more than two years less a day Online child abuser typologies - Bill C-22 - requires all internet services to report incidents of online child pornography - Bill C-26 increased penalties for most types of sexual crime against children - Alexy, Burgess, Baker (2005) identified 3 types of online child abusers 1. Trader who produces, distributes, possesses child pornography 2. Traveller who engges with cidlren online and manipulates them to meet up in person 3. trader/traveller who engages in both trading and travelling - Meridian, Curtis, Thakker, Wilson, Boer (2013) classified online sexual offenders based on 3 dimensions 1. Purpose (fuel sexual fantasy) 2. Motivation (specific sexual interest in children or financial gain) 3. Social component (use of internet websites or interactive communication tools) Crossover effect: A sexual offender who engages in one type of sexual offending (an online child abuser) starts engaging in a different type of sexual offending (a contact sexual abuser), or an offender who victimizes children starts victimizing adults too - Limited research to examine it Table summarizes differences between online and contact child sexual offenders. Does viewing online child pornography lead to or deter from contact sexual offending? Can pedophiles be rehabilitated? - Police are promoting therapy to “low level” pedophiles in hopes of preventing them from reoffending - Convicted pedophile said rehabilitation can work - Make them put themselves in the position of an abused child - help you feel empathy - Victims mom doesn’t agree they can be rehabilitated Pedophile: recurring, intense sexually arousing fantasies, urges, involving children (usually 13 or younger) Child molester: a person who sexually assaults or abuses children Canada’s age of consent - 16 years older to agree to sexual activity - Sometimes higher (ex: relationship of trust, authority, dependency) - A 14 or 15 year old can consent to sexual activity as long as the partner is less than 5 years older and there’s no relationship of trust, authority, or dependency If the partner is more than 5 years older than the 14/15 year old, sexual activity is a criminal offence Sexual expolitation - A 16/17 year old cannot consent to sexual activity if - Their sexual partner is in position of trust or authority towards them (Teacher or coach) - The young person is dependent on their sexual partner (ex: for their care or support) - The relationship between the young person and their sexual partner is expotative - Following factors to consider when determining whether a relationship is exploitative of the young person - The young persons age - Age difference between the young person and their partner - How the relationship developed (quickly, secretly, internet) - If the partner has controlled or influenced the young person Documentary including non-offending pedophile and history of pedophile - Eddie realized her was a pedophile but has never acted on it - Has age of attraction as long as 4,5,6 years old - Not exclusively attracted to children - Common theory of pedophile is a cycle of abuse - those abused as children grow up to be absuers themselves - Eddie wasn’t abused, pedophelia could stem from wiring in your brain Treatment programs in europe - Non offending: has attraction but has never acted on their feelings with a child - We usually focus on interventions after the fact (punishing, sureilling, keeping track of) - Now there’s more research emerging on preventative measures - If you are someone who has an attraction and goes to a therapist, they might deem you a threat and file a mandatory report - That's not the case at Berlin's "Project Dunkelfeld," one of the only places in the world that offers treatment for pedophiles. - Cognitive behavioural treatment - train them to change their behaviour in risky situations - Lower sexual urges with drugs (chemical castration)  - Nearly all people who undergo it claim that they don’t offend Incarceration of sex offenders McNeil Island, Washington St. To be committed to the McNeil Island, a court must find “beyond a reasonable doubt” that a person meets the definition of a sexually violent predator. Under state law, this is defined as someone with a history of sexually violent crimes and an underlying personality disorder or “mental abnormality” who is believed to be “more likely than not” to reoffend if they are not detained. This law allows the state to identify a person for potential commitment either at the end of their prison sentence, just before they are released, or if someone already freed commits a “recent overt act,” defined as a behavior that is predatory and similar to their past behavior. For example, if someone who was convicted of sexually assaulting a child is released and then found loitering at a park or mall and approaching children, this could be considered a recent overt act. Sex offender treatment - Meta analyses showed - Sexual recidivism rates lower for treated offenders (both adolescent and adult) - Both institutional and community treatment effective - Cognitive-behavioral treatment associated with strongest effects Effectiveness of treatment with sex offenders - Lack of consensus about whether treatment is effective - Incarceration doesn’t apepar to be a deterrent - Incarceration might be effective for high risk but community alternatives might be more effective and less expensive - Challenges for researchers: - Conducting controlled studies - Unethical - the design would randomly assign motivated sexual offenders (offenders all wanting treatment) to either treatment or no treatment - Then both treated and untreated would be released, followed, and measured for chances of reoffending - Unlikely that sexual offenders will agree to participate - Relatively low base rate of sexual recidivism (ex: researchers have to wait many years to see if treatment works) - Relying on official recidivism underestimates true rate of sexual recidivism as many crimes aren’t reported - So to detect differences between treatment groups, researchers need to wait years Meta analyses of treatment programs found that  1. Treatment effects were equally effective for adolescence and adult sex offenders 2. Both institutional and community treatment programs are associated with reductions in sexual recidivism 3. The effectiveness of programs increased with the number of risk need responsivity principles they adhered to 4. Cognitive behavioural treatments and those that taget dynamic risk fators are more effective than other forms of treatment Summary 1. Sexual offences affect a large part of the population but its hard to get the real incidence number because a lot of victims don’t report for a variety of reaosns 2. Rapists are offenders who sexuall assault adult, child molesters assault children. Theres serious psychological and physical consequences for victims. 3. Typologies of rapists and contact child abusers have focused on the motivites. Theres 5 primary types - Knight and Prentky a. Opportunistic b. Pervasively angry c. Sexual d. Sadistic e. Vinditictive Groth proposed a. Angry b. Power c. Sadistic Groth proposed that contact child abusers can be classified into 2 types a. Regressed b. Fixated 4. Treatment for sexual offenders involves recognizing denial, minimizaitons, cognitive distortions, gaining victim empathy, modifying deviant sexual interest, enhancing social skills, dealing with substance use problems, development relapse prevention strategies, and creating self regulation plans 5. Meta analyses of treatment programs found that 5. Treatment effects were equally effective for adolescence and adult sex offenders 6. Both institutional and community treatment programs are associated with reductions in sexual recidivism 7. The effectiveness of programs increased with the number of risk need responsivity principles they adhered to 8. Cognitive behavioural treatments and those that taget dynamic risk fators are more effective than other forms of treatment Homocidal offenders 4 types of homicide in criminal law: 1. First degree murder a. Maximum life in prison (25 years no parole) b. Planned and deliberate c. Murder of law enforcement or police or another violent offence (during sexual assault) 2. Second degree murder a. Maximum life in prison (25 years no parole) b. All murder that is not first degree 3. Manslaughter a. Maximum life in prison (25 years no parole) b. Unintentional murder during “heat of passion” or criminal negligence c. Ex: a man sees his wife cheating and kills the guy during an latercation d. Ex: drunk driver accidently kills and individual crossing the street - not during heat of passion - charged with maslaughter due to criminal negligence 4. Infantcide (mother kills its baby) a. Maximum 5 years imprisonment - Killing in self defence or war are exempt from penalties - Homocide is rare - less than 1% of violent crimes in Canada Bimodal classification of homicide - In an attempt for researchers to understand the nature of homicidal behaviour, they have develoiped methods for classifying homicides Feshbach (1964), Kingsbury, Lambert, and Hendrickse (1997) proposed that homicides are classified as reactive (affective) aggression or instrumental (predatory aggression) reactive (affective) aggression - Impulsive, unplanned, immediate, driven by negative emotions, and occurring in response to being provoked - Occurs more among relatives instrumental (predatory aggression)  - Provacative vs reactive, premeditated, calculated behaviour, motivated by a goal (money, power, control) - Occurs more among strangers Woodworth and Porter (2002( - Found relationship between instrumentaitlity of homicide and features of psychopathy - Peopel who scored higher on the PCL-R were more likely to commit instrumental (vs reactive) compared to offenders who scored lower on PCL-R Blais, Solodukhin, Forth - Found relationships between psychopathy and both types of violence - Interpersonal features of psychopathy were associated with instrumental violence - Social deviance features of psychopathy were associated with reactive violence - Lifestyle features of psychopathy were associated with both types of violence Types of homocide - Types of homocide can be distinguished based on the relationship between the offender and victim Filicide: when parents kill - Killing of children by their biological parents, step parents - Includes neonticide (killing a baby within 24 hours of brith) and infantcide (killing a baby within their frst year of life) - Attitudes vary across cultures - Ancient Rome: father had right to kill children - Some cultures have also santioned the gender based killing of children (China and India) - Certain inuit societies killed infants that had brith defects or killed one infant when twins were born 2 famous cases in Canada: 1. Suzanne Killinger-Johnson - mental illness played a role in the death of her child 2. Sonia Blanchette - mental illness didn’t play a role in her suicide and murders Mothers who kill - There are several potential reasons for mothers to kill their children - Stanton and Simpson - 3 types of maternal filicides 1. Neonaticides a. Typically young, unmarried women with no prior history of mental illness, not suicidal, concealed their pregnancies, fearing rejection or disapproval from their families b. Battering mothers have killed their children impulsively in response to the behaviour of the child c. These mothers have the highest rates of social and family stress, including marital stress and financial problems d. The group with mental disorder tends to be older and married  e. Likley to have killed older children, have multuple victims, likley to be diagnosed with psychosis or depression f. Group that is most likely to attempt suicide after the murder g. Altrustic filicide: describe mothers who kill out of love i. Murder is in response to the mother’s delusional beliefs that the child’s death will somehow protect the child 2. Those committed by battering mothers 3. Those committed by mothers with mental illness Infanticide and mental illness - Common assumption is that women who kill their infants are suffering from a mental illness related to childbirth - 3 types of mental illeness have been identified during postpartum period: 1. Postpartum blues a. Most common type of mental illness that can occur in the postpartum period b. Experienced by up to 85% of women (crying, irritability, anxiety, starting within a few days of childbirth and lasting from hours to days but rarely continuing past day 12) 2. Postpartum depression a. Experienced by 7-19% of women b. Occurs within the first few weeks or months after birth, lasts for months c. Symptoms are identical to clinical depression (depressed mood, loss of appetite, concentration, sleep problems, suicidal thoughts) 3. Postpartum psychosis a. Most severe and rare type of mental illness that has been associated with childbirth b. Occurs in 1 or 2 of every 1000 births c. Involves delusions, hallucinations, cuididal, or homocidal thoughts within the first 3 months after childbirth d. Popular amongst researchers because of its potential role in maternal infantcides e. Andrea Yates - drowned her 5 kids in the bathtub i. Diagnosed with postpartum depression and psychosis ii. According to her defence lawyers, Yates was delusional when she murdered her children, believing that she has to murder them to save them from Satan iii. Prosecution agreed that Yates had mental illness, but argued that she knew what she was doing and that it was wrong iv. Match 2002 - jury rejected Andrea Yates insanity plea and found her guilty of capital murder v. Ofiginally sentenced to life but Corut of Appeal reversed the conviction because of a false testimony given by a psychiatrist testifying for the prosecution vi. July 26 - trial ended when Yates was found not guilty by insanity and committed to a mental hostpital Fathers who kill Familicide: spouse and children are killed - Usually committed by a man - Usually accompanied by a history of spousal and child abuse prior to the offence - Peopel who killed their spouse and children were mroe likley to commit suicide than those who killed their spouse and stepchildren 2 types of familicide murders 1. Despondent non hostile killer and commits suicide a. Depressed and worried about an impending disaster for himself or family b. He kills his family c. Past acts of violence towards children and spouse isn’t a characteristic of this types of killer 2. Hostile accusatory killer a. Expresses hostility towards wife b. Related to alleged infidelities or interventions to terminate the relationship c. Past history of violent acts is common for this type of killer Youth who kill - According to Oerreault: compared to adults, youth commit homocides with an accomplice - Similar to adults, youth who kill are acquainted with their victims (intimatley or as a criminal associate) What factors underlie homocide by youth? - Ball, Haizlip, Rollins, and Beaumont (1976) compared three groups of youths: 10 youths charged with killing parents, 10 youths charged with killing relatives or acquaintances, and 10 youths charged with killing strangers - Youth charged with parricide (killing parents) were more likely to have been physically abused, to have witnessed spousal abuse, and to report amnesia for the murders compared with the other youth who committed murder. - Darby, Allan, Kashani, Hartke, and Reid (1998): examined association between family abuse and suicide attempts - Bused youth were younger, more often white, and more likely to have attempted suicide prior to the homocide than non abused youth - Cornell, Benedek, and Benedek: developed a typology of juvenile homicide offenders based on the circumstances of the offence - These types of homicide were labelled psychotic (youth who had symptoms of severe mental illness at the time of murder), conflict (youth who were engaged in an argument or conflict with the victim when the killing occurred), and crime (youth who killed during the commission of another crime - robbery/sexual assault) - Woodworth, Agar, and Coupland (2013): examined motivations underlying youth homicides - Half of all homicides were committed while youth were committing another crime (involved theft of money, propeorty, or substances) Youngest convicted multiple murderer in canada: Jasmine Richardson Spousal killers Femicide: killing of women Uxorcide: specific term denoting the killing of a wife by her husband - More common than mriticide Most common motives 1. Perpetrators anger over estrangement from their partners or sexual jealousy about perceieved infidelity Sinha found that the 2 primary motivations underlying intimate partner homocides were 1. Esclaations of arguments/quarrels 2. jealously Risk factors: the following factors increased the risk for homicide  1. Offender having access to a gun 2. Previous threats having been made with a weapon 3. Estrangement 4. Victim having left for another partner Offence characteristics - Husbands use close contact methods when killing thir partners - Uxoricides are often characterized by a use of excessive force or overkill - High incidences of perpetrator suicide after the murder (interesting bc wives rarely commit suicide after killing their husbands and male offenders rarely commit suicide after killing acquantinces or stranges) Androcide: killing of men Mariticide: term for denoting the killing of a hustband by his wife Sexual homocide - Killing that involves a sexual component Most common definiton by Ressler, Burgess, Douglas in book Sexual homocide: patterns and motives: - For homocide to be considered sexual homocide you need 1 of the following indicators 1. Victime attire or lack of attire (victim was found undressed) 2. Exposure of the sexual parts of victim’s body 3. Sexual positioning of the victims body 4. Insertion of foreign objects into the body cavities 5. Evidence of sexual intercourse 6. Evidence of substittute sexual activity, interest, or sadistic fantasty Eric Beauregard - Done most of the research on sexual homocide - Did a study and presented a detailed descriptive analysis of a large sample of sexual homocides that were comitted in canada - Examined offender and victim charactersitics, victim targeting and access, and modus operatdi used by offenders to commit their crimes - Findings: - offender: - Average age of 28.4 years - Race: white - Status: single - Diverse criminal history - Victim: - Age: 27.2 year - Female - White - Often engaged in high risk lifestyle (abusing alcohol and drugs, homeless, prostitute) Multiple murderers 1. Serial murderers  a. Killing of minimum 2 people over time b. Time interval between murders varies and has been caleld a “cooling off” period c. Subsequent murders occur at different times, have no connection to the initial murder and are usually committed in different locations 2. Mass murderers a. Killing of multiple victims at a single location during one event with no cooling off period 3. Spree murderers a. Killing of 2 or more victims in one continous event at 2 or more locations with no cooling off period between the murders Serial murder - Hard to define because there’s debates towards the number of victims that should be required before being classified and motivate (whether they have to be driven by internal motivations) - For ex: should contract killers/hitmans (motivated by external factors - money) be considered serial killers? Characteristics of serial murders - Male - Majority in US are white - Most common motive is enjoyment (thrill, lust, power) - Victims are usually female, white, and young - Shooting is the most common method of death Female serial murders - Rare - not the focus of research - Many females appear to be either “black widows - kill for financial gain” or “angels of death - nurses who kill their patients) - Black widow: Dorothea Puente - charged with 9 murders of her tenants, and convincted of 3 of the murders - Supposedly done so that she can collect their social security cheques  - Claims that the 7 people’s bodies who were found in her yard had all died of natural causes and that she was innocent - Angels of death: Elizabeth Wettlaufer - Killed number of patients she came into contact with as a registered nurse - Method of murder was injecting elderly with insulin - None of the categories: Aillen Wuornos - Female serial murderer - She stold cash and belongings but didn’t fit in black widow or angels of death category - She killed 7 men she agreed to have sex with - Claimed that she killed them in self defence because they became violent with her but later switched and said her motivation was robbery Famel vs male - Females are more likley to have no prior criminal record, have an accomplice, use poison, kill for money, kill a family member or someone they know Typologies of serial murders - A number of classification systems have been developed to classify serial murders - One typology is organizaed disorganized - Focuses on crime scenes and offenders - Proposed by the FBI in 1980s - Holmes and Holmes proposed another typology - Used 110 case files of serial murders to develop a classification system based on victim characteristics and on the method and location of the murder - Proposed 4 types of serial murders 1. Viosionary a. In response to voices or visions telling them to kill b. Most likely to be diagnosed as delusional or psychotic 2. Mission oriented a. Believes there is a group of undesirable people who should be eliminated (homless people, sex trade workers, specific minority group) b. Motivated by self gratification c. Divided into 3 subtypes based on motivation for killing: lust murderer (motivated by sexual grtifiaction and becomes stimulated and excitedby the process of killing), thrill murderer (derives excitement from seeing their victims experience terror or pain), comfort murderer (not motivated by sexual gratitifaction but by waitng to have absolute dominance over the victim) d. According to Holmes, each of these different killer commit their crimes in a particular way e. Criticisms (1) There’s considerable overlap among categories (ex: lust, thrill, and power/control, are all characterized by a controlled crime scene, a focus on process of killing, and selection of specific victims) (2) Typology’s developers failed to test it empirically 3. Heonistic  4. power/control Keppel and Walter - Proposed classification system for serial sexual murderers - Applied motivational rapist typology proposed by Growth, Burgess, Holmstron to classify sexual murderer - Proposed 2 types of sexual murders that reflect the them eo fpower 1. Power assertive 2. Power reassurance - 2 types reflecting theme of anger 1. Anger retaliation 2. Anger excitation - Authors described how these types differed with regard to crime scene behaviours - The power reassurance type commits a planned rape that escalates to an unplanned murder of the victim - In contrast, the rapes and murders of anger excitation killers are both planned Mass Murderers - Definition of Mass Murder: - Mass murder is the killing of four or more victims at a single location during one event, with no cooling-off period. - Types of Mass Murder: - Classic Mass Murder: A person goes to a public location and kills strangers. - Family Mass Murder: Four or more family members are killed, typically by another family member. - Targeted Mass Murder: The killer intends to murder a specific person but ends up killing others (e.g., Joseph-Albert Guay bombing in 1949). - Motivations of Mass Murderers: - Psychological Traits: Often depressed, angry, frustrated, and feel they have failed in life. - Social Isolation: Often described as lacking interpersonal skills and being socially isolated. - Triggers: Some mass murderers are triggered by a perceived loss or social injustice. - Targets: Typically choose victims who represent those they hate or blame for their problems. - Common Characteristics: - Many mass murderers feel alienated and believe they are victims of society. - Their actions are often seen as a form of revenge or self-expression. - Killing of 4 or more victims at a single location during one event with no cooling off period - School shootings - Classic case: individual goes to a public place and kills strangers at that location  - In a family mass murder, 4 or more family members are killed (usually by another family member) - Mass murders can also occur when the murderer intends to kill a specific person but while doing so, kills others - Often depressed, angry, frustrated individuals who believe that they have not succeeded in life - Often socially isolated and lacking in interpersonal skills - Sometimes they are triggered by what they perceive as a serious loss or social injustice - In most cases, the offenders select targets who represent whom they hate or blame for their problems - Often feel rejected by others and kill as a justfied act of revenge - Most plan their crimes and get semi automatic guns to maximize number od deaths - They dont just “snap”. They display warning signs - Also plan to commit suicide or be killed by police One of canada’s deadliest mass murders - Marc Lepine walked into an engineering building and shot a bullet telling guys and girls to leave - Told the men to leave, stated that he is fighting feminism - Shot 14 women, 10 women and 4 men were injured - Killing ended when he committed suicide - Why did he target owmen? According to his father, he had little respect for women and was verbally and physically abusive towards his wife and their 2 children Theories of homicidal aggression - Burgess, Hartman, Ressler, Douglas, and McCormack (1986) motivation model of sexual homocide: - Trauma control model of serial homicide - Most research around homicidal aggression is guided by general theories of aggression - 3 influential theories in forensic psychology 1. Social learning theory a. Aggressive behaviour is learned the same way that non aggressive behaviour is, through a process of reinforcement b. Specifically, the likelihood of engaging in aggressive behaviour is thought to increase because of a function of how reward aggressive behaviour has been in an individuals pass c. Rewards are often experienced directly (when an individual beats up a schoolmate and experiences an increase in status) d. There’s also rewards that aren’t experienced directory, but vicariously as a result of observing others 2. Evolutionary theory a