Psychopathy: Annotated Bibliography

Accordingly, there exists a small group of people who exhibit most-to-all of these specific and peculiar characteristics and behaviours. This particular group of predators presents numerous challenges to morality, safety and policy. For instance, because a "psychopath" may display a general coldness toward others, they are more likely to commit criminal acts, and afterward not respond to punishment or deterrent tactics. Hare’s psychopathy checklist when used as a tool to identify psychopaths prevents harmful exposure of non-psychopaths to this dangerous group of offenders. For this tool to work effectively there must not be significant overlap of the specific characteristics used in the PCL-R to identify psychopaths as in the general population of non-psychopaths. In other words, the psychopath must

An associate professor of Psychology and Neuroscience from the University of New Mexico, and a District Judge from Denver, Colorado, wrote in an article, The Criminal Psychopath: History, Neuroscience, Treatment, and Economics, and stated that a big difference in psychopaths is that individuals with psychopathic personality, or psychopaths, have disproportionate impact on the criminal justice system (Kiehl and Hoffman, 2011). Psychopaths are 20 to 25 times more likely than non-psychopaths to be in prison and are four to eight times more likely to violently recidivate compared to non-psychopaths (Kiehl and Hoffman, 2011). Kiehl and Hoffman also noted that psychopaths are resistant to most forms of treatment (Kiehl and Hoffman, 2011). Kiehl and Hoffman noted in their writing that psychopathy is a constellation of psychological symptoms that typically emerge early in childhood and affects all aspects of a sufferer’s life (Kiehl and Hoffman, 2011). These symptoms can affect all of their life relationships with family, friends, school and

He described, clarified and captivated the personality traits and socially deviant behaviors of a psychopath. Importantly, this book served as a “guide” in knowing how to protect oneself if ever cross-paths with a psychopath.

“Psychopathy is a personality disorder characterized by an inability to form human attachment, aggressive narcissism, and antisocial behavior defined by a constellation of affective, interpersonal and behavioral characteristics, most of which society views as pejorative” [1]. Some of these characteristics include irresponsibility, grandiosity, cunning, deceitfulness, selective impulsivity, sexual promiscuity, lack of empathy, etc. People who are psychopathic display not only antisocial behavior but also emotional impairment such as the lack of guilt. They are able to prey on others using their charm, deceit, violence or any other methods that allow them to get what they want. A strong feature of most of the behavior

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

Psychopathy, in both the mental health and criminal justice systems, has emerged as one of the most important clinical constructs of the 21st century (Hare, Clark, Grann, & Thornton, 2000, p. 623). Where clinically, psychopathy is traditionally described as a combination of inferred socially deviant behaviors and personality traits. Some traits and behaviors a psychopath is seen to possess are commonly known, for example, to being impulsive, selfish, aggressive, lacking remorse, shame, feeling for others, pathologically lying, and having asocial or antisocial behaviors (Hare, & Neumann, 2006, p. 59-60). One of the reasons as to why psychopathy has come to see an increase in the development of its theoretical and applied interest is the

Psychopathy is an umbrella term that is both wide and varied. Much like the spectrum of light, there are numerous groups and subcategories. In this spectrum is Anti- Social Personality Disorder (referred to as ASPD in this essay); this condition unlike psychopathy is a recognized disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (referred to as the DSM). The term psychopathy and psychopath is used in both the media and everyday use as a disorder but this is untrue. Unlike a disorder, psychopathy is more of a series of traits that all individuals have. ASPD and psychopathy are used interchangeably in society, but the diagnosis for ASPD and psychopathy are quite different. Though similar in numerous ways, there are some key

Berit Brogaard, D.M.Sci., Ph.D., is a Professor of Philosophy and the Director of the Brogaard Lab for Multisensory Research at the University of Miami. She earned a medical degree in neuroscience and a doctorate in philosophy. This article explained the traits of a psychopath, such as their callous, manipulative, and cunning behavior, along with the differentiating between psychopaths and psychotics. This article helped me by providing a good background on psychopathology and useful examples.

This book uses the concept of psychopathy as a way to understand crime. Dr. DeLisi uses hundreds of studies and his own work, plus his own experience of working with antisocial and violent offenders to make this book. Dr. DeLisi then demonstrates how psychopathy explains all sorts of crimes. Dr. DeLisi’s extensive work will help people further research into psychopathy. An with that it will help people better understand crime

Psychopaths pose a challenge for theorists as to their debatable degree of moral and legal responsibility for their actions, as the capacities needed to assign such attributions to an individual may not be present. As psychopaths are able to see the world as it is with no delusions of a false reality they are able to practically apply reason in an effort to pursue their own goals. However, they seem unable to maintain control of their behaviours when placed in a moral situation when their goals are in congruence with the morally negligent path. This is due to their lack of empathy and an inability to see purpose in treating others in a morally acceptable

This article states that we need to stop interchanging psychopath and sociopath, as they are two different disciplines. Pemment goes into detail about the history, research, and growth of psychopathy. He says that we need to understand the difference between the two, as the behavioral characteristics and potential treatments for each are different. The article includes details on Hervey Cleckley and Robert Hares work on psychopathy. The article describes the PCL-R, and how Hare says the test should be done. The PCL-R is used as a screening tool to identify psychopaths, and

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

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

It is very rare to study something that is as fascinating yet as bewildering as the distinctive paradox, that is the human brain. Every individuals conflicting behaviour and elaborate character that make them the person they are must have a justification. I originally established a fascination in forensic psychology as I read about a sequence of homicides committed by Gary Ridgway, otherwise known as the “Green River Killer”. Upon discovery of this case, questions began to pervade in my head about what may be the cause for an individual to execute such things, and just how someone’s mind could be so peculiarly dissimilar to my own.

Eiseberg (1995) examined the structure of sociopathy and found that the role that emotions play in the psychopathic mind is problematic and complex. In his evaluations, Eisenberg established that the study in sociopathy an understanding into the roles of anxiety, love, and sympathy, or lack thereof, as factors contributing to psychopathy. In his findings, Eiseberg (1995) suggested that low anxiety, neuroticism, and absence of love and empathy characterize emotional traits leading to psychopathy. However, the unanswered question that remains from this research is how such emotions are triggered to begin with.