Psychopathy in a mixed gender sample of adult stalkers

The authors present data on a mixed gender sample of 78 adult stalking perpetrators, each of whom was assessed with the Psychopathy Checklist:Screening Version (PCL:SV). Results indicate a generally low frequency of psychopathy in this group, although 15% of the sample was composed of psychopaths. Comparisons between this sample and other forensic samples indicate that both the frequency and degree of psychopathy were lower in the stalking group. The findings support previous theory and empirical findings, including the concept that underlying attachment pathology among stalkers and psychopaths is quite different, and psychopathy--in contrast to other areas of violence risk assessment--is usually not relevant when evaluating dangerousness among stalkers.     

Recidivism is related to psychopathy (PCL-R) in a group of men convicted of homicide

It is well known that psychopaths are a group with high risk for criminality. Despite that, researchers and clinicians have not yet agreed on a general cause of psychopathy. However Raine [Raine, A. (2002). Biosocial studies of antisocial and violent behavior in children and adults: A review. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 30, 311-326.] advocated a biosocial model of violent behaviour where the greatest risk for criminal behaviour occurred when both heredity and environmental risk factors (e.g., social class, childhood history) were present. In this follow-up study, 35 men convicted of homicide were assessed retrospectively for psychopathy according to the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R). Information on personal history, as well as from legal documents and records of offences committed by the subjects was also obtained. Fourteen of the 35 men were classified as psychopaths. Two men, both rated as psychopaths, had criminal parents. Twenty-seven of the men had a social relationship with their victim, and eleven out of these were rated as psychopaths. There was no difference in PCL-R scores between those who had a social relationship with their victim and those who did not. The psychopaths relapsed more frequently than the nonpsychopaths into criminality after their prison term. This result confirms previous research indicating that psychopathy is a risk factor for recidivism. It is, therefore, very important that psychopaths get the best possible treatment, aftercare, and supervision.     

How Media Exposure Relates to Laypersons’ Understanding of Psychopathy

While conceptualization of psychopathy has evolved, so too has the public's relationship with psychology changed. Concurrently, portrayal of psychopaths has made several shifts, both through nonfiction sources and in popular film and television. Psychopathic villains of the mid‐20th century have made space for a growing cast of protagonist psychopaths. This study examined whether a relationship existed between exposure to fictional psychopaths and how lay individuals conceptualize psychopathy. Specifically, this study explored conceptualization differences based on exposure to antagonist versus protagonist fictional psychopaths. Surveyed community participants supported earlier research suggesting mixed misunderstanding of psychopathy. Additionally, higher exposure to protagonist psychopaths was associated with higher endorsement of flattering distractor traits, reflecting a kind of romanticized psychopathy. These findings have legal, practical, and ethical implications, including the potential for biased jurors, confounded research about psychopathy's labeling effect, and questions about how psychologists should respond on an individual and systemic level.     

Sexual fantasies and sensation seeking among psychopathic sexual offenders

Abstract

This study investigated the relationship between psychopathy, sensation seeking behavior and sexual fantasies in a sample of 199 participants from a maximum security forensic hospital. Psychopathy, measured by the Psychopathy Checklist – Revised (PCL-R), and several sensation seeking and sexual fantasy measures were utilized. Results indicated that, in agreement with previous research, sexually deviant psychopaths are more likely to offend against adults than children. Likewise, psychopaths showed some tendency to score significantly higher on sexual sensation seeking measures than nonpsychopathic sexual offenders. Furthermore, a relationship between psychopathy and overall sexual fantasies existed but there were not specific patterns among psychopaths and nonpsychopaths with regard to specific categories of sexual fantasies.     

Psychopathy and instrumental aggression: Evolutionary, neurobiological, and legal perspectives

In the study of aggression, psychopathy represents a disorder that is of particular interest because it often involves aggression which is premeditated, emotionless, and instrumental in nature; this is especially true for more serious types of offenses. Such instrumental aggression is aimed at achieving a goal (e.g., to obtain resources such as money, or to gain status). Unlike the primarily reactive aggression observed in other disorders, psychopaths appear to engage in aggressive acts for the purpose of benefiting themselves. This is especially interesting in light of arguments that psychopathy may represent an alternative life-history strategy that is evolutionarily adaptive; behaviors such as aggression, risk-taking, manipulation, and promiscuous sexual behavior observed in psychopathy may be means by which psychopaths gain advantage over others. Recent neurobiological research supports the idea that abnormalities in brain regions key to emotion and morality may allow psychopaths to pursue such a strategy—psychopaths may not experience the social emotions such as empathy, guilt, and remorse that typically discourage instrumentally aggressive acts, and may even experience pleasure when committing these acts. Findings from brain imaging studies of psychopaths may have important implications for the law.     

The influence of sample type,presentation format and strength of evidence on juror simulation research

Abstract

Recent research has indicated that treatment of psychopaths in therapeutic communities is problematic in terms of high rates of attrition, low levels of motivation and increased reconviction. However, there has been little previous research investigating in detail how the behavioural diffculties posed by psychopaths in therapeutic community settings could be systematically monitored is order to assess change. This paper reports on the development of a checkilst completed by prison officers designed to measure behaviours association with a poor adjustment to a prison based therapeutic community. Behaviour checklist accores showed statistically significant correlations with the Hare Psychopathy Checklist Revised (PCL-R, Hare 1991), patticularly with Factor 1 scores measuring intarpersonal aspects of psychopathy. The potential for developing this method as a type of dynamic assessment for psychopaths undertaking treatmant is discussed.     

Psychopathy and Culpability: How Responsible Is the Psychopath for Criminal Wrongdoing?

Recent research into the psychological and neurobiological underpinnings of psychopathy has raised the question of whether, or to what degree, psychopaths should be considered morally and criminally responsible for their actions. In this article, we review the current empirical literature on psychopathy, focusing particularly on deficits in moral reasoning, and consider several potential conclusions that could be drawn based on this evidence. Our analysis of the empirical evidence on psychopathy suggests that while psychopaths do not meet the criteria for full criminal responsibility, they nonetheless retain some criminal responsibility. We conclude, by introducing the notion of rights as correlative, that even if psychopaths were to be fully nonresponsible, imposing some form of civil commitment would still be warranted.     

Psychopathy and Mortality

It is not known how mortality differs between psychopathic and nonpsychopathic individuals. We linked data from subjects having been in forensic mental examinations at Niuvanniemi Hospital during 1984–1993 to the data from the National Death Registry to estimate the association between psychopathy and mortality. One hundred psychopathic individuals scoring 25 or higher in the PCL‐R scale were followed up for 20–30 years. Two control groups were used as follows: 178 offenders scoring less than 25 on the PCL‐R, and sample of general population drawn from the Finnish National Statistics database. Results reveal that psychopaths die younger than the general population, and the causes of death are more violent than in the nonpsychopath control group. There was a significant positive correlation between PCL‐R score and mortality, and the mortality among psychopaths was about fivefold when compared with general population.     

Aggressive behavior and measurement of psychopathy in female inmates of German prisons--a preliminary study

Studies concerning inmate psychopathy (as measured by Psychopathy-Checklist-Revised, PCL-R; Hare, 1991) have predominantly been concerned with male inmates. This study was the first to look into psychopathy using the PCL-R with the whole required procedure in German prisons with female inmates. The aims of the present study were to gain data about the prevalence of psychopathy in this sample and to examine potential relations between the types and motive of aggression, prosocial behavior and scores on the PCL-R. Sixty female inmates were examined. We obtained a prevalence rate of psychopathy of 17% (N=10, with a cut-off score of 25). Considering a wide range of subtypes of aggressive behaviors, we found that physical proactive, and relational reactive aggression as well as age predicted high scores of psychopathy. However, prosocial or helping behavior was not associated with psychopathy. Implications for diagnostic issues in forensics concerning female prisoners are discussed.     

Psychopathy (PCL-R) in a forensic psychiatric sample of homicide offenders: some reliability issues

Several studies have shown that psychopathy is overrepresented among homicide offenders. There is a consensus that Hare's Psychopathy Checklist-Revised PCL-R is currently the most valid and useful tool for rating psychopathy (e.g., [Fulero, S. M. (1995). Review of the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised. In J. C. Conoley & J. C. Impara (Eds.), Twelfth Mental Measurements Yearbook (pp. 453-454). Lincoln, NE: Buros Institute]). Usually, when making a rating of psychopathy, both an interview and an examination of the subject's files are used. However, it has been discussed what is really required to be able to rate psychopathy in a reliable manner. The aim of the present study was to retrospectively rate the degree of psychopathy in 35 homicide offenders being subjected to forensic psychiatric assessment. These ratings of psychopathy were carried out using forensic psychiatric files and courts'; verdicts only. Another aim was to examine the reliability of PCL-R in this specific Swedish sample of homicide offenders. There was a good agreement between the two raters with respect to the categorical diagnosis of psychopathy (Cohen's kappa=.81, p<.001), which indicates that retrospective ratings of psychopathy are well suited for research purposes. The prevalence of psychopathy among the homicide offenders was 31.4% (using a cut-off score of 30), which means that the construct of psychopathy may contribute to the understanding of the phenomenon of homicide. In the planning of treatment for homicide offenders, a consideration of possible psychopathy is necessary. As criminal psychopaths are known to relapse into violent criminality, it is very important that they are given efficient treatment, placement and management.     

Psychopathic traits and change on indicators of dynamic risk factors during inpatient forensic psychiatric treatment

The main objective of the present study was to investigate the impact of treatment on forensic psychiatric inpatients, examining changes on 22 indicators of five dynamic risk factors for violence (i.e., egocentrism, hostility, impulsivity, lack of insight, and negative distrustful attitudes), and to relate these potential changes to level of psychopathy assessed with the Hare Psychopathy Checklist - Revised (PCL-R). Also, we studied the relationship between psychopathy and treatment compliance, as indicated by the attendance rate of therapeutic activities. Eighty-seven male patients (due to missing data on at least one measure, sample size varies from 58 to 87; 42 patients have complete datasets) were administered a standardized psychological assessment battery (self-report inventories, performance-based personality test, observer ratings) upon admission (T1) and after on average 20 months of treatment (T2). Upon admission, psychopathy (median split, PCL-R score≥22) was significantly related to a higher score on five of the 22 indicators of dynamic risk. The analyses showed no significant differences between psychopathic and non-psychopathic patients on the indicators of dynamic risk factors during 20 months of inpatient forensic psychiatric treatment. However, psychopaths showed the expected pattern of treatment noncompliance, compared to non-psychopaths. The clinical and research implications of these findings are discussed.     

Psychopathy, traumatic exposure, and lifetime posttraumatic stress

This study examined two theoretical models on the interaction between psychopathy, traumatic exposure, and lifetime posttraumatic stress in a sample of 81 male detainees. In Model 1, the interpersonal and affective features of psychopathy were assumed to protect against posttraumatic stress. In Model 2, the lifestyle and antisocial traits of psychopathy were assumed to lead to a lifestyle that increases the risk of traumatic exposure and subsequent posttraumatic stress. The authors found significant negative bivariate associations between Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) total, Interpersonal and Affective facet scores, and posttraumatic stress. Model 1 was confirmed, as they found the interaction between the Affective facet and traumatic exposure had a significant negative effect on posttraumatic stress. Model 2 was rejected. The authors' findings confirm that the interpersonal and affective features of psychopathy are associated with an emotional deficit and that the affective features of psychopathy are crucial for understanding the relationship between psychopathy and anxiety.     

Is PCL-R psychopathy associated with either type or severity of personality disorder?

The extent to which assessment of personality disorders (PDs), and trans-diagnostic measures of PD severity, can capture the variance in psychopathy measured by the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) was examined in 100 forensic patients with a history of violent offending. Correlational and linear regression analyses were carried out to establish whether (i) combinations of PDs would predict PCL-R scores for each of its two factors, interpersonal–affective (F1) and antisocial deviance (F2); (ii) ‘acting out’, a putative measure of externalising maladjustment that transcends PD categories, would predict PCL-R scores. Results showed that narcissistic and avoidant PDs contributed significantly to the prediction of F1, but only antisocial PD contributed to the prediction of F2. ‘Acting out’ predicted both F1 and F2, suggesting that core features of PCL-R psychopathy are embedded within and across different PD diagnoses. Results are discussed in relation to different sub-types of psychopathy described in the literature.     

The impact of pre-treatment responsivity and treatment participation on violent recidivism in a violent offender sample

This study assessed whether pre-treatment responsivity (psychopathy, motivation to attend treatment, denial and minimisation of offending behaviour, and feelings of guilt or shame) predicted violent recidivism and/or moderated the effectiveness of a violence intervention programme. Participants were 114 male violent offenders who were referred to a structured violent offender group treatment programme; 84 offenders commenced the programme. Results showed that treatment completion did not have a significant main effect on recidivism but that psychopathy scores moderated the effects of treatment. Offenders with high scores on the Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version (PCL:SV) who were rated as having good engagement with treatment, or who completed treatment, had similar violent recidivism rates compared to offenders with low PCL:SV scores. In contrast, offenders with high PCL:SV scores who dropped out of treatment or were poorly engaged had significantly higher rates of violent recidivism. These findings indicate that treatment effectiveness could be enhanced, and greater reductions in recidivism achieved, if programmes find ways to engage and maintain psychopathic offenders in treatment.     

Psychopathy,expert testimony,and indeterminate sentences: Exploring the relationship between Psychopathy Checklist‐Revised testimony and trial outcome in Canada

Purpose. Psychopathy, as measured by the Hare Psychopathy Checklist‐Revised (PCL‐R), has the potential to inform judges attempting to preventatively detain Canada's highest risk offenders. However, studies examining the stigma of the psychopathy label give reason to exercise caution when expert witnesses introduce PCL‐R scores into their testimony. Methods. Judges' written or oral judgments were gathered from a publically available database in Canada. Dangerous offender hearings (N = 136) were examined to determine how factors within expert witness testimony were related to sentences of indeterminate or determinate length. Results. Results show a trend for PCL‐R scores to be related to trial outcome. Specifically, psychopathy diagnoses were correlated to experts' ratings of treatment amenability which were in turn related to trial outcome. In addition, experts tended to show partisan allegiance in the way they scored offenders on the PCL‐R. Conclusion. Discussion advocates a measure of caution when using PCL‐R testimony in an adversarial court context. Further research clarifying the role psychopathy plays in court decisions is also encouraged.     

Effects of genetic and environmental explanations of psychopathy and gender on perceptions of criminal behaviors

Genetic/biological evidence is increasingly introduced into courtrooms but findings regarding its impact are mixed. This study integrates research on psychopathy and the use of genetic evidence in legal contexts by considering how information on genetic causal accounts of psychopathy affect perceptions of culpability, recidivism, amenability to treatment, and sentencing severity. Perpetrator gender was examined as a moderator. Two-hundred thirty-eight undergraduates read a hypothetical violent crime vignette and mock expert testimony regarding psychopathy. The testimony included a diagnosis only, or a diagnosis plus genetic or environmental explanations of the etiology of psychopathy. Results indicated that a genetic account of psychopathy was not clearly perceived as aggravating or mitigating such that participants were more lenient in their perceptions of culpability yet more punitive in their sentencing recommendations when perpetrators were described to have genetically-caused psychopathy. An environmental account of psychopathy was mitigating but only for sentencing severity. In addition, although participants were more lenient in sentencing male and female perpetrators when provided with an environmental cause of psychopathy, participants judged male perpetrators most harshly when provided with a genetic cause of psychopathy. Implications of the relations between etiology and gender in legal decision-making are discussed.     

Psychopathy and affect consciousness in young criminal offenders

A key characteristic of psychopathy is the individual's problematic relation to certain affects, particularly shame. Previous research has studied relations between expressed shame and psychopathy. In this study, the author analyzes potential associations between psychopathy and consciousness of feelings (i.e., participants' ability to recognize and tolerate the feeling and describe how they believe it is expressed in their posture and verbal expressions). Psychopathy is assessed with the Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version, and affect consciousness is assessed with a semistructured interview. Additionally, risk for criminal behavior, moral reasoning, cognitive distortions, and attachment style in the participants was assessed. The participants are 47 adolescent boys who were treated at juvenile delinquency homes. The results indicate that boys with higher ratings of psychopathy had lower consciousness of shame feelings and lower empathy scores. The results in combination with qualitative analyses of the interview answers are interpreted as indicating that consciousness of shame is specifically problematic for psychopathic adolescents.