Gun Violence and Psychopathy Among Female Offenders

Abstract

Research exploring risk factors of gun violence is limited, especially research involving women as perpetrators of violence. Yet, women account for 18–21% of convicted violent crime. The present study aimed to test if psychopathy, a notable risk factor for violence, was related to past convictions of gun violence, general forms of violence, and non-violent crime. In a sample of 206 female offenders, multinomial logistic regressions assessed how interpersonal, affective, and behavioral psychopathic traits increased the likelihood of women belonging to the gun violence group, a violent crime group, and a non-violent crime group. Results showed the interpersonal and affective facets increased the likelihood of women belonging to the gun violence group compared to both the violent and non-violent crime groups. The behavioral facet increased the likelihood of women belonging to the violent crime group when compared to the gun violence and non-violent crime groups. These results suggest that gun violence has different risk factors than violent and non-violent crime. This line of inquiry indicates that existing violence prevention strategies may need to be modified to address gun violence.

Psychosocial Interventions for Children and Adolescents with Conduct Problems

“…Future research assessing outcomes of family-based interventions and multicomponent interventions is encouraged to incorporate measures assessing gun violence to advance our current understanding of the impact of these well-validated interventions for preventing or reducing gun violence. Given CU traits/psychopathy are typically associated with severe and persistent aggression and violence (Thomson et al, 2020) and are linked to an increased risk of gun violence (Thomson, 2022), it will be important to test whether treatment adaptations targeting risk factors unique to this subgroup reduce gun violence. If not, it may be necessary to refine these adapted treatments to specifically target the (unique) mechanisms involved in gun violence and risky gun behavior among youth with CU traits or psychopathy.…”