Lecture 13: Psychopathy

Importance of psychopathy

• psychopaths make up 25% of male prison population but perform more than 50% of violent crime

• psychopaths recidivate (reoffend) 3-4x more than non-psychopaths following release from prison

• they aren’t all in jail and not all are criminals

• use people and the system to get what they want, good at mimicking emotions they are important to manipulate

• must protect ourselves and not be a victim of their games

• 23-25% are psychopaths in the men prisons

• 20-22% in the female prison

Characteristics

Interpersonally = egocentric, manipulative, dominant, cold-hearted

Affectively = labile emotions, no long lasting bonds to people or principles or goals, lack of empathy or guilt

Behaviourally = impulsive, sensation-seeking, violate social norms

*Personality disorder = considered throughout the lifespan, developmental, in existence, have examples of childhood and onwards

What do we assess these characteristics with

Hare Psychopathy Checklist - Revised (PCL -R)

Uses of the checklist

• assessing and diagnosing psychopathy for research and clinical purposes

• parole board hearings/dangerous offender verdicts

• best predictive tool for recidivism(reoffending)/ risk assessments

Composition of the checklist

• 20 characteristics (you get a score of o,1, or 2 for each)

  ○ 0 = It doesn’t pertain to the person at all

  ○ 1 = pertains to them in some aspects of their life

  ○ 2 = pertains to them in most aspects of their life

• Total score out of 40, cut off of 30 is used for research purposes (only take 22 and lower for the non-psychopaths, farther away from cut off)

• Scoring a 30 or higher out of 40 = psychopath

• semi-structured interview (ask set questions but get go off book and ask any question you want to collect more info) and collateral information (1-2 hours)

• childhood, relationships, work experience, family history, criminal history, general view of life and people

PCL-R items