Psychopathy and criminal behavior

Psychopathy and criminal behavior

Abstract

The paper shed light on the pedigrees of the debated concept concerning psychopathy and how it relates to criminal behavior. The article began by overviewing the term psychopathy as well as its contributions in criminal justice. The current perceptions about psychopathy rises a specific concern on the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R). The existing tools used in measuring psychopathy faces criticism as well as recognizing its limitation when dealing with criminal justice (Hare,2018). Therefore, psychopathy and criminal justice become pivotal to shed light on several contributions of the PCL-R. Further, the psychopathy is compared to Criminality. In conclusion, the paper pinpoints the need to explore the collaboration of psychopathy and criminal behavior as the investigation done in an extremely limited scoop.

Keywords: Psychopathy and criminal behavior, psychopathy and Criminality

Introduction

The psychopathy conception becomes widely disputed from a theoretical view. In light, psychopathy is essential in the psychiatry and psychology fields as well as in disciplines which include, criminology. However, psychopathy remains as a mental disorder that is unapproved requiring thorough studies. Discovery of the psychopathy concept shall aid in the process of relating psychopathy notches to criminal behavior. The paper helps to clarify the psychopathy by reviewing the origin of the modern psychopathy. Moreover, it gives a summary of how the psychopathy concept relates to criminal behaviors and how the idea of psychopathy becomes vital when dealing with a criminal.

Psychopathy and Psychopathy Checklist development

The modern origins of psychopathy are found in the Cleckley research work mainly in the book, “The Mask of Sanity” where criteria were posed to diagnose psychopathy. The idea of psychopathy is termed as a veiled mental illness in individuals. The researcher suggested that psychopathic people are possibly found in every aspect of life, which could include individuals such as businessman, professors, lawyers (Lilienfeld,2015). Furthermore, psychologists indicated that professionals which include, chief executive officers and managers, have a high possibility of being spotted with a psychopathic ailment in comparison with the regular people (Lilienfeld,2015). Currently, Psychologist Dutton incorporated the lasted research in scanning brain and neuroscience and ended by supporting that, a professional, for example, lacking empathy has common characteristics with a serial killer killing for pleasure without any inner feeling of thought that has hurt individuals out of the action (Brislin,2015).

Dutton added an argument that some functional psychopaths exist amongst people using their detached, unwavering and compelling personalities to succeed in society. The functional psychopaths are suggested to operate under specific and fertile professional resulting to success in life. Besides, Cleckley regarded tendencies which lead to violence and main criminal activities, as a “fundamental of psychopathy” as are independent of the degree of any kind psychopathic manifestations. Shedding light, many attitudes and behaviors of psychopaths comprise a covetous quality, which portrays straightforward, reliable and trustworthy features along with “cold-blooded” characteristics to be instrumental and create a way toward success in the society. Intimidation and violence tendencies comprising of distress become less considered in such psychopaths (Lilienfeld,2015).

Robert, a psychologist, further contributed to the psychopathy studies, by managing to develop an original Psychopathy Checklist. The psychopathy checklist becomes useful in the assessment of psychopathy in adults. The revision of Robert’s PCL became useful from 1991 after launching. The reversed version of the psychopathy checklist used even today included new tests of psychopathy, encompassing the Antisocial process screening device (ASPD) and youth version (PCL-YV). Recently, the reversed PCL gained great credit and became a standard instrument in the field of forensic psychiatry, focusing on personality traits in an individual (Brislin,2015).

Above and beyond, psychologist Hare managed to come up with another advance Psychopathy Checklist which included most of the personality traits of the psychopath. The measured characteristics included, impulsivity, sexual promiscuity, need for stimulation, superficial charm and glib, self-grandiose estimation, parasitic nature in lifestyle, pathological lying, lacking empathy, lacking guilt, irresponsibility in human life, short-term marital relationships, criminal versatility, delinquency of juvenile, and poor behavioral controls (Hare,2018). When evaluating the patient, the psychopathy checklist reversed symptoms become based on the facts of an interview parallel to a logical assessment of information documented in the file of the psychopath. The psychologist tries to use the full report which is available to understand the life-patterns behavior associated with patience. In regard, the psychologists make a conclusion based on symptoms which are persistent and pathological.

Psychopathy and Criminality

Psychopathy cannot be identical with criminality; therefore, not all criminals are psychopaths. A quite number of criminals become successful in life by use of the capabilities of victimizing the universal public. However, according to research, the criminal and non-criminal psychopaths have the same personality traits and tendency which indicate unethical behavior (Collins,2015). According, Silver research, the characteristics of the psychopaths including, criminal versatility, nature of impulsivity, callousness and lacking empathy and remorse, all link the both straightforward and violence psychopaths (Gray,2016). In making an effort in understanding the correlation between psychopathy and criminal behavior, is decoded that, psychopaths constitute only one percent of the population globally. The statistical analysis support in favor to argue that psychopathy and criminal behavior are related. Nonetheless, further research should be on place to undoubtedly prove the link between the two conceptual ideas.

However, apart from the psychopathy definition following the psychologists’ ideas more investigation has been in place to study the conceptual concept of psychopathy. In more than half a century, the researcher has engaged in conducting experiments and sampling data from different patients. The results indicate that people who mostly involve in criminal activities and violent behaviors end up having a problem of mental disorders rather than being non-disordered (Gray,2016). The results from the investigation concerning the psychopaths ending up having mental disorder become supported by further research of psychiatric patients discharged to join the community. The studies could suggest that most of the criminal offenders become associated with mental disorders (Collins,2015).

Furthermore, scholar extended studies basing on aggressive behavioral traits of the psychopaths and pointed that the person suffering from other psychological, mental disorders likely end in committing crimes as well as perpetrating violence acts as compared to the non-disordered psychopaths. Therefore, while the psychopathy checklist covered most of the universal criminal behavior tools, the PCL may be an inappropriate piece to identify the “psychopaths who are successful.” Successful psychopaths have a psychopathic personality which makes them hard to the same category as the psychopaths in prison. In regard, such kind of psychopaths tries to stay within the community by managing the law abiding the state or even avoiding to involve in a criminal trial (Gray,2016).

Conclusion

In conclusion, failing to consider psychopathy when assessing risk may be unreasonable under legal views, unethical, or even from a professional standpoint. In the framework of predicting criminal and violent behavior, nevertheless, the analytical validity of psychopathy become complicated, as several of the symptoms of the psychopathic may directly correlate to crime. Thus, making impossibilities of determining whether a disorder as per the analysis or if the past behavior forecasts criminal behavior in the future. In general, the PCL reversed becomes a vital tool to understand and even predicting crime and violence in a psychopath. In the context of broader tools used to assess risk, PCL becomes an essential indicator of the behavior of the criminals, thus recommending in the criminal justice and criminology field.

References

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