Psychopathy and Criminal Behaviour Flashcards
1
Q
Psychopathy
A
Julis Koch (1891) - not exhibiting any symptoms of mental illness but still exhibiting abnormal behaviour
- Hervey Cleckley - personality disorder, criminality is not essential to psychopathy
2
Q
Examples of Hervey Cleckley’s 16 traits
A
superficial charm
untruthfulness
anti-social behaviour
3
Q
Robert Hare
A
Candian Psychologist
- continued with Cleckley’s work
- came up with a way to measure psychopathy
4
Q
Psychopathy Checklist Revised (PCL-R)
A
Primary and Secondary Psychopathy
5
Q
Primary Psychopathy
A
Interpersonal and Affective traits
- pathological lying
- lack of remorse
6
Q
Secondary Psychopathy
A
Chronic Anti-Social Lifestyle traits
- Impulsivitiy
- Juvenile delinquency
7
Q
Psychopathy Prevalance
A
- 1-5% of general population
- between 7-20% of prison population
- more common in men than women
- associated with more extreme and repeated criminal behaviour
8
Q
Genetic Factors
A
- 49% of variance in psychopathy is due to genes (the rest is shared envirnoment)
- highly heritable
- MAOA gene with early life trauma = anti-social behaviour
9
Q
Neurological Factors
A
- neurological deficits in people with psychopathy
- Amygdala and Anterior Insula deal with empathy
- low activity
10
Q
Psychopathy & Criminal Behaviour
A
- Psychopathy is a predictor of criminal behaviour
- Meta-analysis by Fox and DeLisi looked at 22 studies and 2,603 homicide offenders took the PCL-R
- very strong associaltion between psychopathy and homicide offending
- Substantial risk factor for violent crime
- Moderate association between secondary psychopathy and sex offences
- association w/ human trafficking, sadistic violence and future violence
11
Q
Treatment
A
- can treat it, just not well
- More of a chance of drop out
- they don’t think that there is anything wrong with them
- weak bonds with therapist
- no motivation to go to treatment
