M10: Psychopathy

Psychopathy characteristics

Personality disorder

• Arrogant, deceitful interpersonal style

• Deficient affective experiences

• Impulsive and irresponsible behaviours

• Early onset & diverse antisocial behaviours

Percentage of psychopaths in prison

10-25%

Most common assessment for psychopathy

Psychopathy checklist-revised (PCL-R)

Hare, 1991

PCL-R: Basic components

• Semi-structured interview and file review

• 20 item questionnaire

  • 3 point scale (0, 1, 2)

• Total score of 40

  • >30 = psychopathy

• Youth version: PCL:YV

• Qualified professional (PhD, appropriate training)

4 facets of psychopathy

Interpersonal, affective, lifestyle, antisocial

Other: Promiscuous, many marital relations

4 facets of psychopathy: Interpersonal

Superficial, grandiose, lying, manipulative

4 facets of psychopathy: Affective

Lack of remorse, shallow affect. lack of empathy, not responsible

4 facets of psychopathy: Lifestyle

Needs stimulation, parasitic lifestyle, lack of goals, impulsivity, irresponsibility

4 facets of psychopathy: Antisocial

Poor behavioural controls, early behavioural problems, delinquency, conditional release, criminal versatility

Interviewing psychopathy

Suspect:

• Try to outsmart interviewer

• Enjoy being focus of attention

• Attempt to control

• Will not be fooled by bluffs

• Attempts to shock

Recommendations:

• Case familiarity

• Convey experience &confidence

• Admitation

• Avoid criticism

• Avoid emotion about case

Antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) vs. Psychopathy

Psychopathy not in the DSM-5

60-80% ASPD

10-25% Psychopathy

Psychopathy etiology: Twin studies, Waldman et al., 2018

Moderate heritability (~50%)

Moderate non-shared environmental influence

No evidence of shared environmental influence

Psychopathy: Theories

Brain damage, structural abnormalities

Response modulation hypothesis (RMH)

Fearlessness hypothesis

Affective deficit

Environmental factors

→ Interaction model

Psychopathy: Theories - Brain Damage, structural abnormalities

Prefrontal cortex

• Important in: decision-making & impulse control

• Increased activation- negative stimuli

• Decreased activation- positive stimuli

• Volume reductions

Striatum

• Important in: involuntary movement, decision-making, processing rewards

• Increased volume

• Therefore reward-oriented, less affected by consequences

Amygdala/hippocampus

• Important in: Emotions & memories

• Less blood flow → less processing of emotional stimuli

• Less affected by fear

Psychopathy: Theories - Response modulation hypothesis (RMH)

Dominant response set -(novel/unexpected/negative event)—> response

1. response modulation → learn from next time

2. perseveration → failure to learn from event

Psychopathy: Theories - Fearlessness hypothesis

Startle reflex: occurs when something negative happens

Magnified if person is in negative emotional state / feeling threatened

Reduced if in positive emotional state

Mediated by circuits in the amygdala

Psychopathy: Theories - Affective deficit

They have a blunted capacity for experiencing emotion in general

Interferes with understanding the emotional significance of events and the meaning of their actions

Broad conclusions: Emotions play little role in their thinking, approach to the world is predatory

Psychopathy: Theories - Environmental factors

Similar to those for general offending

Childhood antecedents:

• Criminal father/mother

• Depression mother

• Uninvolved father

• Poor supervision

• Disrupted family

• Hyperactivity

• High dishonesty

• High impulsivity

Psychopathy: Theories - Interaction model

Both with a certain genetic predisposition and through interaction with environmental factors, psychopathic traits may develop

• Factor 1: (callous-unemotional) more influenced by genetics

• Factor 2: more influenced by the environment

Psychopathy & the CJS

Estimated cost to US CJS $460 billion/year

One of the most influential predictors of violent & sexual offences/reoffences

In the CJS

• Pretrial secure detention

• Increased supervision after release

• DO/LTO hearings

• Longer sentences

• Death penalty

• Termination of parental rights

• denial of parole

• Guilt determination

• Imposing adult sentence

To be successful at manipulation

1. read vulnerability cues

2. avoid detection by appearing socially trustworthy

3. display range of emotions even if not felt

Psychopath Victim vulnerability

Gait

• A person’s manner of walking

• Higher F1 scores more likely to use gait cues

Reactive murders

• Associated with lower PCL-R score (72%) as opposed to instrumental (28%)

Higher F1 → more instrumental

Higher F2 → more reactive (not big diff)

Psychopathy treatment

Resistant to traditional treatments

More likely to drop out of treatment

More disruptive in group therapy

Lack of empirical studies … premature to conclude they can’t be treated

Two component model of Psychopathy, Wong & Hare, 2005

Factor 1: interpersonal/affective

• specific responsivity

• treatment motivation

• treatment retention

= manage these, not change

Factor 2: lifestyle/antisocial

• criminogenic need

• treatment as usual

• cognitions/actions

Psychopathic brain: Brian Dugan, 2010

fMRI scan of serial killer (Dugan)

Scanned doing 2 tasks:

1. response inhibition

2. moral decision making

Found he lacked the ability to feel emotions

He argued he should not be executed as he was less responsible, jury disagreed and he was found guilty

Psychopathy in the legal system: Should be based on

1. Sound assessment procedures (including inter-rater reliability)

2. Empirical evidence

3. Ethical principles

Psychopathy & relationships: Forth et al., 2022

N = 457 survivors (409 women, 48 men)

Procedure: Asked “did you notice anything unusual about them when you first met?”

Results: 21% said no; most ended in extreme mental health effects (could also be sampling bias)