CRM380: 7 ~ Psychopathy

Introduction

• Psychopathy is one of the most important psychological constructs in the criminal justice system

  • Important because:

    • Defining offenders who a high risk for recidivism

• Not all offenders are psychopaths

Psychopathy v. Sociopathy

• Psychopathy = Cluster of psychological, interpersonal, and neurophysiological features

  • Also can be known as "Severe ASPD" (severe anti-social personality disorder)

• "Sociopath" - nonclinical label attached to persistent lawbreaking

  • Not a scientific term -- no validated measures to assess it, no scientific research

What is Anti-Social Personality Disorder?

• ASPD: pervasive pattern of disregard for and violation of rights of others

  • Psychopathy is a severe subset of ASPD

  • A significant number of people who have ASPD are psychopaths, but you can have ASPD without being considered a psychopath

• Focus on primary psychopathy

Psychopathy v. Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD)

• Anti-social personality disorder (ASPD) - failure to conform to social norms

  • APD - behavior based

    • Psychopathy - emotional, cognitive, neurological

  • ADP typically involves criminal behavior

  • Not all psychopaths are criminal, Not all criminals are psychopaths

• e.g., 50-80% of male inmates meet criteria for APD

  • 11-25% of male inmates meet the criteria for psychopathy

Primary Psychopathy and Secondary Psychopathy

• Primary ("true") - identifiable psychological, emotional, cognitive, and biological differences that distinguish these individuals from the general & criminal populations (not emotionally disturbed)

  • Characterized by:

    • Emotionally stable and can regulate emotions

    • Low anxiety

    • Genetic influences

• Secondary - antisocial behavior rooted in emotional problems (i.e., emotionally disturbed offenders)

  • Characterized by:

    • Negative emotionality

    • High anxiety

    • Environmental influences

    • More impulsive, violent

    • Less controlled

    • Higher probability of criminal behavior

What is a Psychopath?

• Usually NOT explosive, violent, destructive

• More likely charming, outgoing, socially competent

  • c.f., psychopath vs. criminal psychopath - persistent and serious antisocial behavior

• Key characteristics

  • Lack of guilt

  • Lack of empathy

  • Shallow affect (feeling little emotion)

• Link to "callous-unemotional" traits

• Neurocognitive profiles:

  • Callous-unemotional - emotionally under-reactive, particularly to others' distress

  • Without callous-unemotional - emotionally over-reactive, particularly to perceived threat (Cf. hostile attribution bias)

• In people with high levels of callous-unemotional traits, there is a relative high level of conduct problems

  • Antisocial behavior is strongly heritable in children with callous-unemotional traits

    • Strong genetic basis for psychopathy

Behavior Descriptions - Cleckley

• Features of Psychopathy:

  • Superficial charm

    • Seem to be outwardly confident

  • Average to above-average intelligence

    • Much research has been on "unsuccessful" psychopaths

  • Mental disorders?

    • Rarely; often absence of neurotic symptoms (anxiety, fear) and psychotic traits (delusions)

  • Selfishness (pathological egocentricity)

    • Incapable of genuine affection for others, but can pretend, mimic, manipulate well

  • Pathological dishonesty

  • Impulsivity

  • Lack of remorse/guilty

    • Most important trait

    • Semantic aphasia - words are devoid of emotional sincerity

      • Can articulate regret, but without meaning)

  • Excessive use of instrumental aggression (& reactive if interference with pursuit of goal)

  • Neuropsychologically-based stimulation (sensation) seeking

The Criminal Psychopath - Prevalence

• 1% of general population

• 10-15% in correctional populations

• Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD) - 3% males, 1% females (general population)

Offending Patterns

• Sexual assault/rape = overrepresented among psychopathic offenders

  • Most psychopaths are not serial killers

    • Tend to be more violent, sadistic; thrill-seeking or nonsexual motivations

• Murder - more sadistic, brutal; derive pleasure from the suffering of others

Recidivism

• Recidivism rates of psychopaths are very high

  • Psychopathy is the strongest predictor we have for violent sexual recidivism

    • PCL-R (psychopathy test) = strong predictor of recidivism

• "nothing the behavioral sciences can offer for treating those with psychopathy"

  • "…unmotivated to alter their problematic behavior and often lack insight into the nature and extent of their psychopathology"

• Studies

  • Unescorted temporary absence programs (furloughs): failure rate (reoffended while released) = 37.5% (psychopaths) v. 0% (non-psychopaths)

  • Parole violations

    • Psychopaths: 33%

    • Non-psychopaths: 7%

  • Federal offender recidivism:

    • 65% psychopaths

    • 25% non-psychopath

  • Sex offenders

    • >80% violent recidivism within 6 years of release from prison

      • 20% for non-psychopathic sex offenders

Neuropsychological Factors

• Widely considered a complex interplay of neuropsychological factors and learning/socialization

  • Genetic Factors

    • Autonomic

    • Neurocognitive

    • Social information processing

    • Temperament

    • Personality traits

  • Maternal Factors

    • Stress (prenatal)

  • Familial

    • Harsh and inconsistent discipline

    • Parent-child conflict

    • Maltreatment

    • Negative parental emotions

    • Disorganized parent-child attachment

    • Disrupted family functioning

    • Low parental warmth and responsivity

• Genetic factors influence the development of both antisocial behavior and psychopathy

  • However, environmental factors often contribute the exacerbation of these factors

Genetics

• No psychopathy gene

  • Research tells us that psychopathy tends to run in families

    • A parent might carry one or more genetic variants, regardless of not having psychopathy, that can increase their child's chance of developing psychopathy

• Most psychological outcomes are caused by the combined effects of many hundreds of thousands of genes

  • No one is born with psychopathy, but some children are born at high risk for developing psychopathy due to inherited factors

• Overall: some evidence of some contribution (~50%, maybe), but interplay between multiple factors more likely

  • Genetic basis for some traits (e.g., temperament, low arousal, fear response -- see, ANS, amygdala)

Central Nervous System (CNS)

• Hemisphere asymmetry/dysfunction - lack integration between language and emotion potentially in psychopaths

• Defects in frontal lobe processing (executive functions - impulse control, planning)

• Amygdala (fear, anger) - lower amygdala activity during emotional tasks

Autonomic Nervous System (ANS)

• Under-responsive ANS (physiologically "drowsy")

• "Hypo-emotionality" - fail to experience full impact of emotions

• Do not learn to avoid aversive situations (link to recidivism)

• Injections of adrenaline improve avoidance learning

Childhood

• Biological predispositions + environmental risk factors

• More likely to have experienced:

  • Family difficulties (e.g., parental neglect, abuse)

  • Negative school experiences

  • Poor parental monitoring and discipline