Psychopathy and Criminal Behavior PDF

**Psychopathy and criminal behaviour** *"Psychopaths* *are social predators, who charm , manipulate, and ruthlessly plow their way through life, leaving a broad trail of broken hearts, shattered expectations and empty wallets. Completely lacking in conscience and empathy, they selfishly take what t...

**Psychopathy and criminal behaviour** *"Psychopaths* *are social predators, who charm , manipulate, and ruthlessly plow their way through life, leaving a broad trail of broken hearts, shattered expectations and empty wallets. Completely lacking in conscience and empathy, they selfishly take what they want and do as they please, violating social norms and expectations without the slightest sense of guilt or regret" \~ (Hare, 1993, p. xi)* *About 1.2% of U.S. adult men and 0.3% to 0.7% of U.S. adult women are considered to have clinically significant levels of psychopathic traits. Those numbers rise exponentially in prison, where 15% to 25% of inmates show these characteristics (Burton, B., & Saleh, F. M., Psychiatric Times, Vol. 37, No. 10, 2020). That said, psychopathy spans socioeconomic status, race, gender, and culture, and those who score high on psychopathy scales range from high-functioning executives to prison inmates to people whose psychopathic symptoms may reflect difficult life circumstances more than anything else.* *- DeAngelis, 2022* Psychopathy - Perhaps the most influential researcher in the history of psychopathy was American psychiatrist **Hervey M. Cleckley.** - Provided the most influential model of psychopathy to the field. - His book *The Mask of Sanity* (1941) - Cleckley's work on psychopathy brought attention to the concept of a criminal personality among psychologists and psychiatrists. Criteria for psychopathy, the original description Superficial -- not genuine -- surface level Absence of delusions is important -- differentiate why this may differ with others A diagram of a path Description automatically generated with medium confidence - Psychopathy is not regarded as a mental disorder - It is not included with the DSM or ICD manuals - DSM V refers to antisocial personality disorder -- not the same as psychopathy - Some criticisms that DSM focuses on behavioural indicators of a disorder - However not entirely true. - Contemporary definitions of psychopathy include behavioural, emotional, neurological, cognitive differences.  A paper with text on it Description automatically generated  - Recent research indicates that psychopathy is a continuum rather than a category - APD = categorical (have it or don't) - 50-80% of male inmates qualify APD (Hare, 1998; Hare, Forth, & Strachan, 1992) only 11 -- 25 % of inmates meet criteria for psychopathy (Hare, 1996) - In 1980, Robert Hare published\ the **Psychopathy Checklist** (PCL: Hare, 1980). - Hare's model of psychopathy was based on\ Cleckley's original model and viewed\ psychopathy as a disorder of **personality**,\ not behaviour. Presentation must be stable across time and contexts -- otherwise it would be circumstantial If you look at criteria, some of them aren't negative.. so why would we consider it as a disorder...? - Recent research indicates that psychopathy is a continuum rather than a category - APD = categorical (have it or don't) - 50-80% of male inmates qualify APD (Hare, 1998; Hare, Forth, & Strachan, 1992) only 11 -- 25 % of inmates meet criteria for psychopathy (Hare, 1996) - In 1980, Robert Hare published\ the **Psychopathy Checklist** (PCL: Hare, 1980). - Hare's model of psychopathy was based on\ Cleckley's original model and viewed\ psychopathy as a disorder of **personality**,\ not behaviour. Psychopathy is not unique to a criminal population. Particularly features in environments that we see psychopathy's in. Checklist -- similar to first checklist A list of emotional response Description automatically generated with medium confidence Differences between original criteria = 18, 19 and 20 are specific to criminal behaviour and very different to first one. Had to be criminal behaviours involved - In 1980 the APA published the DSM-III and include a personality disorder called 'Antisocial Personality Disorder' (ASPD). - Created one of the most enduring debates in criminal psychology. - *Is there a difference between ASPD and Psychopathy?* - According to Hare:\ "Most psychopaths meet the criteria for ASPD, but most individuals with ASPD are not psychopaths."  Majority of psychopaths meet the criteria for ASPD Assessment of psychopathy - Robert Hare's model of psychopathy can be measured using a range of clinical and self-report measures. - The Psychopathy Checklist: The most dominant psychological instrument for measuring criminal psychopathy - Most frequently used instrument for research and clinical applications - A family of measures **For use with forensic samples** - The Psychopathy Checklist: Revised (PCL-R) - The Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version (PCL: YV) **For use with non-forensic samples** - The Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version (PCL: SV) - The Hare Self-Report Psychopathy Scale (SRP) - The Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale (LSRP) - Gold-standard - developed for use with **[offenders]** - 20-items scored on the basis of extensive **clinical interviews** and **file information** - Each item is rated as 0 (not present), 1 (possibly present), or 2 (definitely present) -- range of score 0-40 - A cut-score of 30 (sometimes 25) is used to distinguish individuals with psychopathy. - 21-29 = middle, below 21 = nonpsychopaths Majority on white males Checklist -- revised. Four factors A grid of white lines on a black background Description automatically generated Theoretical update - Psychopathy research has been strongly influenced by Hare's model - Interpersonal/affective component -- Factor 1 - Lifestyle/antisocial behaviour component -- Factor 2 - Hare's model of psychopathy has been criticised as deviating from Cleckley's original conceptualization through the inclusion of criminal/anti-social behaviour as a component of psychopathy (Boduszek et al., 2016). - Criminal behaviour is a possible outcome of psychopathy; **not an essential feature of psychopathy.** Criminal behaviour is a social construct -- it's not an inherent feature of a disorder. It's like saying that carrying a gun is a feature of psychopath. But that doesn't make sense, it depends on cultural environmental factors - Boduszek et al. (2016) argue that the essential features of psychopathy relate to **affective** and **interpersonal** deficits. - Factor 1 of Hare's model and congruent with Cleckley's model. - Growing body of evidence suggests that psychopathic personalities can thrive in both criminal and non-criminal contexts. - The prevalence of psychopathic traits was demonstrated to be higher in a corporate sample than that found in community samples (Babiak, Neumann, & Hare, 2010). - Heightened psychopathy scores in U.S. presidents correlated with a better-rated presidential performance (Lilienfeld et al., 2012). Someone who has low anxiety, aren't concerned about things, which can result in them being ruthless and successful. Therefore are disorders so bad, it could be someone's super power. If something is a disorder, it has to have a disordered effect on their life. - Boduszek et al. (2016) developed new model of psychopathy that captures four components: - **Affective responsiveness** - low empathy and emotional shallowness. - **Cognitive responsiveness** - ability to understand others\' emotional states, mentally represent another person\'s emotional processes, and engage with others\' emotionally at a cognitive level. - **Interpersonal manipulation** - superficial charm, grandiosity, and deceitfulness. - **Egocentricity** -- tendency to focus on one\'s own interests, beliefs, and attitudes. - **Boduszek et al. (2016)** developed the **Psychopathic Personality Traits Scale (PPTS)** to measure this new model of psychopathy. - The reliability and validity of the measure was demonstrated amongst a nationally representative sample of Polish prisoners (N = 1,794). - The authors stated that *"a clean [personality] measure of psychopathy uncontaminated with behavioral items would enable researchers to extend the construct to all populations regardless of criminal history."* (Boduszek et al., 2016, p.10). **Psychopathy and gender** - Less is known about the causes, correlates, and assessment of psychopathy in females (for a review see Cale & Lilienfeld, 2002). - Base rates of psychopathy in jail settings (Nicholls et al., 2005; Vitale et al., 2002). - 9% to 23% for **females** - 15% to 30% for **males** Females - Psychopathy associated with higher rates of incarcerations (e.g., Vitale et al., 2002). - Less aggressive and violent than their male counterparts (Mulder et al., 1994) and may begin offending later in life (Hart & Hare, 1997). - Reoffend less often than male psychopaths (Salekin et al., 1998). - May have recidivism rates that are no different from non-psychopathic female offenders (Salekin et al., 1998). - Hare's PCL-R has been developed almost exclusively on white male criminal psychopaths - Some studies suggest that female criminal psychopaths may demonstrate different behavioural patters than male criminal psychopaths. Majority is based in PCL - Beryl **Chou, and Vollm (2014)** conducted the first systematic review of psychopathy among women. - Restricted to women in secure settings. - Identified 28 high-quality studies (n = 2,545) - PCL-R prevalence rates ranged from 1.05% to 31.0% - Prevalence rates varied depending on security facility - *high security criminal justice facilities exhibited higher prevalence rates.* - Prevalence rates also varied based on geographical location - *Highest rates in North America* - *Lowest rates in the UK* - The structure of psychopathy is distinct in females as compared to males. - The best model of psychopathy for females includes three components: 1. Arrogant/ deceitful interpersonal style -- the way they interact with others in arrogant 2. Deficient affective experience 3. Impulsive/ irresponsible behavioural style - Psychopathy appears to manifest somewhat differently across the sexes. - For both sexes psychopathy is reflective of dysfunctional interpersonal, affective, and behavioural styles. Psychopathy in children and youth - Psychopathic personality is identifiable from a very young age. - 3 year old children exhibit classic characteristics of psychopathy (Glenn et al., 2007). - These characteristics reliably predict adult psychopathy (e.g., Lynam et al., 2009; Martens, 2000) and antisocial behaviour (Vaughn & DeLisi, 2008) - Childhood and adolescent psychopathy is indicated by a mix of impulsivity, callous and unemotional traits (CU), and conduct problems---a combination of traits known as "fledgling" psychopathy (Lynam, 1996, 1997, 1998) CU traits -- callous and unemotional traits -- presentation of these traits to indicate psychopathy traits. - Lawing et al. (2010) - 150 incarcerated adolescents (charged with sexual offences) with high CU traits - used more violence in the commission of crimes - had a greater number of sexual offence victims - engaged in more sexual offence planning Cold in emotional responding, no empathy, more violent. Young psychopaths - They are more likely to - engage in instrumental and reactive aggression - have more frequent police contact, and to be processed by the justice system Instrumental and reactive aggression difference = instrumental is using aggression to get something you want while reactive is retaliating to something Instrumental aggression is what you see more often with those of CU traits. - Higher psychopathy scores are also related to an increased likelihood of - escape from custody - violation of the conditions of probation - Reoffending after release from treatment programs Stability of psychopathy If it is a personality disorder then they should have it forever and it should be stable. Maintain throughout their life. However... - Psychopathic traits are less prevalent in older cohorts - Factor 2 of the PCL-R (social deviance) declines with age - traits constituting social deviance (Factor 2) are behaviourally related and, therefore, may change over time (see also Poythress et al., 2007) - Factor 1 (interpersonal and affective) remains stable across various age groups (Harpur & Hare, 1994) Factors 2 element decreases with age. It's the criminal behaviours that decrease -- that shows that this is not psychopathy and its juts criminal behaviour Factor 1 is psychopathy as its stable and doesn't decrease across age groups Psychopathy and criminal behaviour - Strong and consistent association between psychopathy and criminal behaviour (Hare, 1996; Hart, 1998; Hemphill et al., 1998). - Psychopathy is *"the **unified theory of delinquency and crime** and the purest explanation of antisocial behaviour"* (DeLisi 2009, p.256) Psychopathy is a root cause of criminal behaviour - Psychopathy has also been shown to predict antisocial behaviour in environments that should theoretically protect against delinquent behaviour (Beyers et al., 2001) - e.g., those characterised by high socioeconomic status Violent offending - meta-analytic study - psychopathy shows an overall effect size of *r* =.27 -.37 in predicting **violence** (e.g., Hemphill et al., 1998; Salekin et al., 1996) - Psychopaths - use threats of violence and weapons in their crimes (Serin, 1991) - are motivated by revenge and retribution (e.g., Cornell et al., 1996) - Kruh et al. (2005) - psychopathy associated with a history of **unprovoked** violence in juveniles. Instrumental violence - Cleckley (1976) - violence perpetrated by psychopaths is more **instrumental** than the violence committed by other offenders, which is typically reactive. - **Instrumental violence** ('proactive' or 'predatory' violence) is controlled, purposeful, and used to attain a desired external goal (e.g., money, power, or revenge) - **Reactive violence** is impulsive and emotion-driven in response to a perceived threat or provocation (Meloy, 1997) General violent population they will say they did it because.... But with psychopaths it's because they wanted something so they went to violence etc... - Cornell et al., (1996) - instrumental violence was most commonly associated with a self-reported **lack of emotional arousal** during the violent act. Didn't feel much Sadistic violence - Association between sadistic violence and psychopathy (Hare et al., 1999; Porter et al., 2001, 2003) - Holt et al. (1999) explored the prevalence of sadistic traits - 41 violent psychopathic and non-psychopathic offenders in a maximum-security prison - Psychopathic offenders were significantly more sadistic - Violent and sexually violent groups did not differ in their level of sadistic traits - these traits were generalised and not tied specifically to sexual pleasure. Sexual offending - Rates (and levels) of psychopathy differ between groups of sex offenders - rates in rapists: 25% - 45% psychopaths (Porter et al., 2000; Woodworth et al., 2013) - especially sadistic rapists (Hare et al., 1999) - sexual homicide offenders - up to 97% psychopaths (Firestone et al., 1998) - Porter et al. (2000) -- psychopathic offenders do not focus on a specific victim type but, instead, sexually assault victims opportunistically - all sexual offender groups had higher PCL Factor 1 scores (interpersonal-affective) - Rapists, mixed rapists/molesters, and non-sexual offenders score significantly higher on Factor 2 (antisocial lifestyles) compared to child molesters Goes in line with serial killers -- who's the easiest opportunity for them to kill however serial killers would have a psychological meaning to their victims but psychopaths won't have a psychological meaning/ value. - The relationship between psychopathy and sexual offending is due to the instrumental use of sex, and convenience offending associated with a lack of victim empathy (e.g., Blair et al., 1997; Knight & Sims-Knight, 2003). - Increased rates of sexual pleasure from violent offences in psychopathic offenders, a characteristic also known as **sadism** (Kirsch & Becker, 2007). - Psychopathic sex offenders are more impulsive and opportunistic in their sexual violence (Forth & Kroner, 1995) - Less motivated to offend by the negative pre-crime emotional states that have been identified as general precursors to sexual assault (Brown & Forth, 1997). - 40% of the psychopathic rapists reported positive feelings in the 24-hours preceding their attack. Homicide - Empirical data calls into question the assertion that "psychopaths are impulsive" (Hart & Dempster, 1997; Hare, 2003; Poythress & Hall, 2011) - Woodworth & Porter (2002) propose a \"selective impulsivity\" explanation - impulsive behaviour may not be as uncontrollable as it appears. - Derive satisfaction from planning and committing an instrumental act of violence - Consistent with association between psychopathy and sadism - Factor 2 has direct relationship with criminal offending and recidivism. - **Factor 1** explains the specific types of violence in which psychopaths engage (Skeem et al., 2003) - Porter et al. (2001) - psychopathic murderers scored higher on Factor 1 of the PCL-R - Non-murderers showed higher Factor 2 scores (Woodworth, 2007) Sexual homicide - 58-97% sexual murderers meet the criteria for psychopathy (Firestone et al., 1998; Meloy, 2000; Porter et al., 2003) - Psychopathic sexual-homicide offenders score higher on the interpersonal-affective subscale of psychopathy (Firestone et al., 1998; Häkkänen-Nyholm et al., 2009) Recidivism and psychopathy - Psychopathic homicidal sexual offenders had greater incidences of sexual paraphilias (Firestone et al., 1998) - Recurrent, intense sexually arousing fantasies, sexual urges, or behaviours involving - nonhuman objects - the suffering or humiliation of oneself or one's partner - children or other non-consenting persons (APA, 2000) recidivism and psychopathy - Psychopathic offenders about 5 times more likely than other offenders to violently recidivate within 5 years of release (Serin & Amos, 1995; see also Hemphill et al., 1998) - Factor 2 associated with recidivism (Walters, 2003)