CHAP 11 (PSYCHOPATHY) Flashcards
Psychology of Violence
Violence has a major impact on victims and society
Homicide rates dropping in Canada over the past decade
Russell Williams
Colonel Wing Commander and Exemplary member on the Canadian Armed Forces
Broke into homes and committed rape, theft, and was a serial killer
Imprisoned Indefinitely
“a court-ordered label given to convicted offenders who pose a significant risk of harm to the public”
Dangerous Offender
Risk Assessment: What are the most important predictors of violence?
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?
“Milwaukee Cannibal”
Serial Killer / Sex Offender
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
Bimodal Classification of Homicide
Reactive (affective)
Instrumental (predatory)
General Murder Trends
- 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
Multiple Murder: Types
Serial murder
Mass murder
Spree murder
Definition of Serial Killer / Murder
- 3 or More
- Typically a cool off period (semi-predictable pattern)
- Over Significant Periods of Time / Separate Events
Definition of Mass Murderer
3 or More
In short period/ one time / almost always one location
Spree Murder
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”.
Characteristics of Serial Murderers / Profiling
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
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
Gary Ridgway
(Green River Killer)
Holmes and Holmes Textbook Typology
Murders are
- Visionary (Higher Purpose, God, Visions, Voices, Beliefs) (Mental Illness Possibility)
- Mission Oriented (Certain type of group or person that they hate, “ridding the world”)
- Hedonistic (Out of Lust, Urge to Kill, Thrill)
- Comfort (Resources, Finances, Property, etc)
Textbook also
5.LUCK
6.THRILL
7.POWER / CONTROL
**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
Psychopathy
Example of a Psychopath
Ted Bundy
Psychopathic Traits:
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)
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
Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R; Hare, 1991, 2003)
Psychopathy and Antisocial Personality Disorder
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
“Almost ALWAYS CERTAIN THAT ADULTS WITH PSYCHOPATHY, _________________”
CANNOT BE TREATED OR FULLY RECOVER
Psychopathy in Youth
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)
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
Cognitive Model of Psychopathy
Psychopaths have a deficit in the experience of certain critical emotions
Affective Model of Psychopathy
Overall Psychopathy Treatments in Children are ________,_ _____________, and some research shows that they are likely to __________ into adulthood
heavily mixed
some research shows they can improve
continue being that way
ONE POSSIBLE ANSWER for NATURE VS NURTURE AND ORIGIN OF PSYCHOPATHY
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)
A label used to describe a
person whose psychopathic
traits are assumed to be due
to environmental factors
Sociopathy
A personality disorder
characterized by a history of
behaviour in which the rights
of others are violated
Antisocial personality
disorder (APD)
Two of the most widely used self-report scales for Psychopathy
Psychopathic Personality Inventory–Revised (PPI-R; Lilienfeld & Widows, 2005)
and the
Self-Report Psychopathy Scale (SRP; Paulhus, Neumann, & Hare, 2016).
Psychopathy and Motives for Violence
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
People who are sexually
aroused by fantasies, urges,
or acts of inflicting pain,
suffering, or humiliation on
another person
Sexual sadism
Psychopathy and Treatment
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
Aggression / homicide that is impulsive,
unplanned, immediate, driven
by negative emotions, and
occurring in response to some
perceived provocation
Reactive (affective)
aggression
Aggression / homicide that is
premeditated, calculated,
and motivated by some goal
(e.g., to obtain money)
Instrumental (predatory)
aggression
