CHAP 11 (PSYCHOPATHY)

Question 1

Psychology of Violence

Answer 1

Violence has a major impact on victims and society
Homicide rates dropping in Canada over the past decade

Question 2

Russell Williams

Answer 2

Colonel Wing Commander and Exemplary member on the Canadian Armed Forces
Broke into homes and committed rape, theft, and was a serial killer

Question 3

Imprisoned Indefinitely
“a court-ordered label given to convicted offenders who pose a significant risk of harm to the public”

Answer 3

Dangerous Offender

Question 4

Risk Assessment: What are the most important predictors of violence?

Answer 4

Dangerousness a central construct of mental-health law
What do we mean by “dangerous”?
Can we assess present dangerousness and make accurate predictions?

A “risk assessment” is a clinicians attempt to
- Predict which people are likely to be violent
- Give some estimate of this probability
- Offer suggestions for reducing risk
- Where does it all begin?

Question 5

“Milwaukee Cannibal”
Serial Killer / Sex Offender

Answer 5

Jeffrey Dahmer
- Came from
Middle Class Family
Mostly kind and normal, weird during high school
Parents divorced, Developed a drinking problem
Molested, Raped, and Killed
She explains the being caught story with the boyfriend and 3 women / police where he tricked them
Diagnosed with Schizotypal and other mental disorders

Question 6

Bimodal Classification of Homicide

Answer 6

Reactive (affective)
Instrumental (predatory)

Question 7

General Murder Trends

Answer 7

• Women much more likely to be killed by male intimate partners
• Much More likely to be killed by someone you know (partner, friends, family, acquaintances)
• Gang violence murders

Question 8

Multiple Murder: Types

Answer 8

 Serial murder
 Mass murder
 Spree murder

Question 9

Definition of Serial Killer / Murder

Answer 9

• 3 or More
• Typically a cool off period (semi-predictable pattern)
• Over Significant Periods of Time / Separate Events

Question 10

Definition of Mass Murderer

Answer 10

3 or More
In short period/ one time / almost always one location

Question 11

Spree Murder

Answer 11

a person / group kill two or more people
Multiple locations in a single event (without a cooling-off period)
The event can be short or long.
Also sometimes referred to as “rampage killing”.

Question 12

Characteristics of Serial Murderers / Profiling

Answer 12

 Most serial murderers are male, do not operate with an accomplice and are Caucasian
 Victims of serial murderers are usually young females with no relation to the murderer

Question 13

Targeted Sex Workers (went home from 2nd shift work, killed them, then buried them in the morning before work)
Estimates around 71 individuals, only convicted of 48

Answer 13

Gary Ridgway
(Green River Killer)

Question 14

Holmes and Holmes Textbook Typology
Murders are

Answer 14

1. Visionary (Higher Purpose, God, Visions, Voices, Beliefs) (Mental Illness Possibility)
2. Mission Oriented (Certain type of group or person that they hate, “ridding the world”)
3. Hedonistic (Out of Lust, Urge to Kill, Thrill)
4. Comfort (Resources, Finances, Property, etc)

Textbook also

5.LUCK
6.THRILL
7.POWER / CONTROL

Question 15

**personality disorder with a cluster of interpersonal, affective, and
behavioural characteristics
 Begin criminal career earlier, persist longer, and are more violent and versatile than other!!!!!!!!!
offenders

Answer 15

Psychopathy

Question 16

Example of a Psychopath

Answer 16

Ted Bundy

Question 17

Psychopathic Traits:

Answer 17

Interpersonal: Grandiosity, Manipulative

Affective: Lack of guilt, remorse, empathy

Behavioural: Impulsivity, Criminal Versatility

(Large tendency to harm small animals or pets)
Very unlikely that psychopaths are shy
Typically doing it for a reason (instrumental rather than reactive)

Question 18

is often used to assess the presence psychopathic traits in individuals
(Lasts 2-3 Items, 20 Hours, scoring of 0,1,2)
Maximum Score of 40
Most violent offenders have 30 or higher

Answer 18

Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R; Hare, 1991, 2003)

Question 19

Psychopathy and Antisocial Personality Disorder

Answer 19

Antisocial personality disorder (APD) places more emphasis on behavioural features (impulsivity, criminal versatility) rather than affective and interpersonal features

Asymmetrical relation between psychopathy and APD
Nearly all high scorers on Psychopathology correlates highly to APD, however high scores of APD does not make them a psychopath

Question 20

“Almost ALWAYS CERTAIN THAT ADULTS WITH PSYCHOPATHY, _________________”

Answer 20

CANNOT BE TREATED OR FULLY RECOVER

Question 21

Psychopathy in Youth

Answer 21

Research focused on identifying the emergence of psychopathic traits in children and youth

Assessment instruments
1.The Antisocial Process Screening Device (APSD; Frick & Hare, 2001)
2. Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version (PCL:YV; Forth et al., 2003)

Question 22

Psychopathy as a result of a response modulation deficit (Newman et al., 2007)
Don’t respond to certain normal stimuli in specific stimuli regions of the brain, may possibly result in extreme acts of violence and dopamine

Answer 22

Cognitive Model of Psychopathy

Question 23

Psychopaths have a deficit in the experience of certain critical emotions

Answer 23

Affective Model of Psychopathy

Question 24

Overall Psychopathy Treatments in Children are ________,_ _____________, and some research shows that they are likely to __________ into adulthood

Answer 24

heavily mixed

some research shows they can improve

continue being that way

Question 25

ONE POSSIBLE ANSWER for NATURE VS NURTURE AND ORIGIN OF PSYCHOPATHY

Answer 25

DIATHESIS STRESS MODEL

“a psychological theory that explains how mental illnesses develop by considering a person’s natural predisposition and their response to stressful events”
Genetic influences may not emerge in a positive environment, even though likely
Whereas someone could have no genetic influence and still emerges in bad environment
Genetics only make one vulnerable, not cause
(NATURE AND NURTURE COMBINED)

Question 26

A label used to describe a
person whose psychopathic
traits are assumed to be due
to environmental factors

Answer 26

Sociopathy

Question 27

A personality disorder
characterized by a history of
behaviour in which the rights
of others are violated

Answer 27

Antisocial personality
disorder (APD)

Question 28

Two of the most widely used self-report scales for Psychopathy

Answer 28

Psychopathic Personality Inventory–Revised (PPI-R; Lilienfeld & Widows, 2005)
and the
Self-Report Psychopathy Scale (SRP; Paulhus, Neumann, & Hare, 2016).

Question 29

Psychopathy and Motives for Violence

Answer 29

The characteristics that define psychopathy are compatible with a criminal lifestyle and a lack of concern for societal norms. Characteristics that ordinarily help to inhibit aggression and violence, such as empathy, close emotional bonds, and internal inhibitions, are lacking or relatively ineffective in psychopaths

• Psychopathy is significant because of its
  association with criminal behaviour in general and violence in particular. Although psychopaths make up a relatively small proportion of the population, their involvement in
  serious repetitive crime and violence is out of proportion to their numbers

Question 30

People who are sexually
aroused by fantasies, urges,
or acts of inflicting pain,
suffering, or humiliation on
another person

Answer 30

Sexual sadism

Question 31

Psychopathy and Treatment

Answer 31

General: Clinicians are mostly pessimistic about treating psychopathy, as psychopaths often seek treatment for personal gain (e.g., probation or parole).

Rice, Harris, and Cormier (1992): Treatment reduced violent recidivism in nonpsychopaths (22% treated vs. 39% untreated) but increased it in psychopaths (77% treated vs. 55% untreated).

Rice et al. (1992): Findings suggest that some treatment programs might worsen outcomes for psychopathic offenders.

Criticism of Rice et al. (1992): Treatment failure could be due to inappropriate programs or poor implementation rather than psychopathy being untreatable.

Sewall and Olver (2019): Psychopathic sex offenders who completed treatment with positive gains were less likely to violently reoffend, but 30% dropped out compared to 6% of nonpsychopaths.
- Affective deficits in psychopaths were strongly linked to dropping out of treatment.

Olver, Lewis, and Wong (2013): Intensive and targeted cognitive-behavioral treatments reduced violent reoffending in high-risk psychopaths (PCL-R scores >25).

Salekin, Worley, and Grimes (2010): Effective programs target criminogenic needs, are intensive, and use a cognitive-behavioral approach.
Future Perspective: Better understanding of psychopathy could lead to programs addressing changeable factors driving criminal behavior

Question 32

Aggression / homicide that is impulsive,
unplanned, immediate, driven
by negative emotions, and
occurring in response to some
perceived provocation

Answer 32

Reactive (affective)
aggression

Question 33

Aggression / homicide that is
premeditated, calculated,
and motivated by some goal
(e.g., to obtain money)

Answer 33

Instrumental (predatory)
aggression