Criminal Behaviour: Psychopathic Offenders

Front 1

Is psychopathy in the DSM?

Back 1

NO

Front 2

What is psychopathy?

Back 2

a term to describe a person who demonstrates a discernible cluster of psychological, interpersonal, and neuropsychological features that distinguish them from the general population

Front 3

Who was Hervey Cleckley

Back 3

-wrote The Mask of sanity, 1941

-saw psychopathy as a serious social problem because they were more likely to commit more types of crimes, more violent crimes, recidivate and less likely to respond to treatment

-laid the foundation for theoretical basis of psychopathy by providing a conceptual framework to do research on to test hypothesis

-Provided first detailed clinical description

-16 characteristics of psychopaths

Front 4

What are Cleckley's 16 characteristics of psychopaths?

Back 4

1. superficial charm and good intelligence. (good intelligence is no longer a criteria, dress selves up with big words to make it seem like they are intelligent)

2. Pathological egocentricity (extreme self centerdness)

3. Untruthfulness and insincerity

4. Manipulative

5. Lack of remorse/guilt, semantic aphasia

6. general poverty of affective reactions (low emotionality)

7. unresponsiveness in interpersonal relationships

8. unreliable

9. impersonal sex life

10. failure to follow any life plan

11. impulsive

12. absence of anxiety

13. poor judgement

14. absence of delusions

15. inadequately motivated antisocial behaviour (related to neuropsychological factors like thrill seeking)

16. bizarre behaviour after drinking

Front 5

What is the PCL?

Back 5

-developed by Robert Hare

-used cleckley's criteria to operationalize into a research scale for assessing psychopathy

-measures a constellation of emotional, interpersonal, and behavioural characteristics

-is focused on CRIMINAL psychopathy

Front 6

Explain how the PCL-R works

Back 6

-20 items (criteria/traits)

-scored using file info and semi structured interview

-each item follows 3 point scale (0: absent, 1: sometimes, 2: always present)

psychopathy is a continuum/spectrum (high in psychopathic traits)

scores range from 0-40

Front 7

what is the cutoff score for psychopathy on the PCL-R

Back 7

25-33

Front 8

What is the 2 factor model of the PCL-R

Back 8

1. Personality (interpersonal and affective characteristics), difficult to treat, dont correlate as much with antisocial personality disorder proactive aggression

2. Chronic Antisocial Behaviour, more predictive of recidivism reactive aggression

Front 9

What is the 4 factor model of the PCL-R

Back 9

1. Interpersonal style

2. Affective

3. Lifestyle

4. Antisocial

Front 10

What is the 3 factor model

Back 10

1. arrogant and deceitful Interpersonal style

2. Deficient Affective experience

3. Irresponsible and impulsive behavioural style

Front 11

What are the Factor 1 items on the PCL-R 2 factor model.

Back 11

Personality characteristics:

1. Glibness/superficial charm

2. Grandiosity

3. pathological lying

4. conning/manipulative

5. lack of remorse/guilt

6. shallow affect

7. callous/lack of empathy

8. fail to accept responsibility for own actions

Front 12

What are the factor 2 items on the PCL-R 2 factor model

Back 12

Antisocial/behavioural characteristics

1. Need for stimulation

2. parasitic lifestyle

3. poor behavioural controls

4. early behavioural problems

5. lack of realistic, long term goals

6. impulsivity

7. irresponsibility

8. juvenile delinquency

9. revocation of conditional release (recidivate)

Front 13

What are the last 3 items that don't fit into either factor in the 2 factor model?

Back 13

1. promiscuous sexual behaviour

2. many short-term relationships

3. criminal versatility

Front 14

What are the core features of factor 1 of the 4 factor model?

Back 14

Interpersonal

1. lying

2. conning

3. manipulating others

4. superficial charm

5. promiscuous sexual behaviour

Front 15

What are the core features of factor 2 of the 4 factor model?

Back 15

Impulsive lifestyle

1. irresponsibility

2. sensation seeking

3. lack of realistic goals

4. poor planning

Front 16

What are the core features of factor 3 of the 4 factor model?

Back 16

Affective

1. Shallow emotions

2. Callousness

3. little empathy

4. grandiose self worth

Front 17

What are the core features of factor 4 of the 4 factor model?

Back 17

Antisocial tendencies

1. poor self regulation

2. persistent criminal activity

3. antisocial behaviour

Front 18

What is the factor breakdown

Back 18

factors 1 and 3 of the four factor model make up factor 1 of the two factor model.

Factors 2 and 4 of the four factor model make up factor 2 of the two factor model

Front 19

what percent of the general population has psychopathy?

Back 19

1%

Front 20

What percent of the adult prison population are psychopaths?

Back 20

15-20%

Front 21

True or false: psychopaths are more likely to be sadistic than nonpsychopathic offenders. (get pleasure from inflicting pain on others)

Back 21

true

Front 22

What is the institutional base rate of psychopathy for women?

Back 22

7.5% less than men which is 15%

at cutoff score 30

Front 23

female and male psychopaths display different symptoms. true or false.

Back 23

true

Front 24

what are the differences between male and female psychopaths?

Back 24

-females are less violent

-start offending later in life

-recidivate less

-males more likely to show emotional deficits and callousness than women

Front 25

There is a big difference in recidivism rates of female psychopaths and non psychopaths

Back 25

false. There is not a big difference.

Front 26

what race was the PCL-R mostly developed on

Back 26

white innmates

Front 27

True or false: there are not many differences in traits/patterns of traits between ethnic groups. If so, what are they?

Back 27

true. The only difference is that african americans considered psychopaths are less impulsive than whites

Front 28

cautions about the PCL-R

Back 28

-could being assessed as psychopathic be used biasedly towards minority or disadvantaged groups for sentencing? eg. indeterminate, or capital punishment?

-how can psychopathy info predict recidivism in ethnic minorities

Front 29

True or false: research supports the concept of a juvenile psychopathy

Back 29

true

but you need to consider normal adolescent development

Front 30

Is the psychopathy checklist-youth version (PCL-YV) effective at identifying psychopathy in girls?

Back 30

no

Front 31

What are the ethical concerns of diagnosing juvenile psychopathy?

Back 31

1. labels them

2. more likely to be transferred to adult court system and recieve more sever penalties

4. self fulfilling prophecy with treatment providers (think lost cause)

BUT it is important to identify it early so appropriate treatment can be offered as soon as possible.

Front 32

What causes Psychopathy?

Back 32

complex interaction between neuropsychological and socialization factors

Front 33

What are the psychopath categories?

Back 33

1. Primary psychopaths: high in factor 1(personality) and factor 2(antisocial behaviour) traits. This is what most of the research is on with biological stuff

2. Secondary Psychopath: Severely emotionally disturbed and impulsive, may be rooted in parental abuse and rejection

3. Dyssocial psychopaths: antisocial behaviour is learned from their subculture.

Front 34

Genetic factors of psychopathy

Back 34

temperament with low arousal and low fear response is associated with psycopathy

-low arousal, disrupts fear and concern of punishment

Front 35

What are the Central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) factors that are related to psychopathy?

Back 35

1. Hemisphere assymetry: an abnormal balance between the hems in language processing and emotional/arousal states.

a.) Left hemisphere activation hypothesis

b.) Emotional paradox

Front 36

what is the left hemisphere activitation hypothesis?

Back 36

psychopaths have difficulty with tasks that require the left hemisphere like language and seqeuntial processes. Self inhibiting processes are lacking because they lack the internal voice to turn on the breaks. The connection between language and our ability to inhibit our own behaviour is impaired. Also have impaired reading of emotional expression on people's faces when conditions are designed to require the left hemisphere to do so.

Front 37

What is the emotional paradox?

Back 37

Causing Psychopaths to be able to talk about emotional cues theoretically, but lack the ability to useemotional cues effectively in the real world due to processing issues in the left hemisphere.

Front 38

What role does impairment in the right hemisphere have?

Back 38

makes them not feel emotions as strongly

Front 39

What does the frontal lobe do?

Back 39

executive functioning: higher level cog ablities such as decision making, cog flexibility, foresight and planning, regulating impulses, organizing, controlling behaviours, memory.

Front 40

Do psychopaths have problems/ dysfunctions in the frontal lobe?

Back 40

yes. Primary psychopaths

Front 41

Explain amygdala dysfunction and how it relates to psychopathy

Back 41

lower amygdala activity in psychopaths during emotional processing tasks (related to callous unemotional traits) because amgdala involved in emotions, anger fear disgust, learning, short term mem in situations that emotionally loaded

Front 42

Explain the autonomic nervous system and how it relates to skin conductance and psychopaths

Back 42

skin conductance increases as fear and anxiety increase due to stimulation of fight or flight response

-primary psychopaths have low skin conductance due to low arousal

-lie easily, less fear of punishment

Front 43

What is avoidance learning?

Back 43

since anxiety is an essential component to learning to avoid painful or stressful situations, primary psychopaths with low levels of anxiety due to an unresponsive autonomic nervous system have difficulty learning to avoid unpleasant things.

Front 44

How can psychopaths learn instead?

Back 44

they can learn if there are adequate incentives (eg money), rewards.

If avoidance learning is paired with adequate incentives, tehy are likely to learn as well as non psychopaths.

Front 45

How does the deficit in avoidance learning explain recidivism rates?

Back 45

because they don't learn from the painful situation of prison like others may

Front 46

What happens when a psychopath drinks alcohol?

Back 46

complete lack of self regulation. Many psychopaths have alcohol and drug abuse problems

Front 47

What are the early childhood risk factors of psychopathy?

Back 47

1. neglect, abuse and indifference from parents

2. poor parental monitoring and punishment

3. negative school experiences

Front 48

What does the Rice et al. 1992 study say about the treatability of psychopaths?

Back 48

-treatment with therapeutic communities does not work and makes psychopaths worse.

-but, targeted their unconscious defenses, used LSD, and nude encounter groups!!!

Front 49

Is psychopathy Treatable?

Back 49

little research on the effectiveness of RNR treatment on psychopaths and programs that specifically target psychopathic offenders

Front 50

What's the issue with treating psychopathy?

Back 50

difficult to work with in treatment because of low motivation, dropout, and superficial level of engagement

Front 51

Explain the Fifth estate video

Back 51

About cory, 40 years old.

involved in crime since young age (17 years old pimp) 20's selling drugs, guns

-natural born killer, to be someone everyone was afraid of. Liked to scare people

-took pride in being a predator/offender

-swtiched sides, need bad guys to catch bad guys to work for RCMP

-caught 6 people with cory's help. He was the agent.

-everyone's friend but no-one's friend.