Psychopathy among Mexican American Gang Members: A Comparative Study

Abstract

High-risk Mexican American males were assessed for levels of psychopathy. The Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Screening Version was compared in a random sample of gang members with a matched community sample of violent non-gang members and samples of forensic and psychiatric patients and undergraduate students. Analysis involved t-test, chi-square, and Cronbach's alpha statistics. More than half of the gang sample were categorized as low, 44% as moderate, and only 4% as high on psychopathy. The gang members had higher scores on the total, affective, and behavioral scores than the non-gang members. High scores on adolescent antisocial behavior, poor behavioral controls, and lack of remorse were found in both samples. Gang members scored twice as high as non-gang members on lack of empathy. Both samples were lower on psychopathy than the forensics and higher than psychiatric patients and undergraduates. The results provide grounds for early intervention efforts for this high-risk population.

Criminal attitudes and psychopathic personality attributes of youth gang offenders in Singapore

“…The gang-affiliated youth offenders appeared to have higher scores on the impulsiveÁirresponsible subscale of the YPI (i.e., the behavioral factor) as compared with nongang-affiliated youth offenders, but differences did not remain significant when other pertinent factors were taken into account. Nevertheless, this finding was somewhat consistent with the extant literature, which suggested that some psychopathic personality traits (e.g., low empathy and poor impulse control) are important in determining who will join a gang (Dupéré et al, 2007;Valdez et al, 2000). It was proposed that psychopathic traits, like criminal attitudes, may predispose a youth to become more susceptible to joining a gang, and in doing so, these psychopathic traits are reinforced and maintained when the youth chooses peers who encourage and support these traits (Caspi, Roberts, & Shiner, 2005;Lynam & Gudonis, 2005).…”

“…Other researchers have found that callous and unemotional traits predicted aggression and conduct problems in adolescents (Frick, Cornell, Berry, Bodin, & Dane, 2003). Pertaining to gangaffiliated youth, studies have shown that certain psychopathic personality traits (e.g., low empathy and poor impulse control) may be important in determining who will join a gang (e.g., Dupéré, Lacourse, Willms, Vitaro, & Tremblay, 2007;Valdez, Kaplan, & Codina, 2000). Identification of these traits may help with the management of the youth (e.g., responsivity issues), as well as provide opportunities for youth to address their empathy and impulsivity issues.…”

The Mediating Role of Self-Esteem: The Effects of Social Support and Subjective Well-Being on Adolescents’ Risky Behaviors

“…Accordingly, adolescents with high self-esteem showed less risky behaviors, a relationship that has been confirmed in previous studies (Bolton, Robinson, & Sareen, 2009;Koivumaa-Honkanen, Kaprio, Honkanen, Viinamaki, & Kosenvuo, 2004;Scourfield, Roen, & McDermott, 2008;Valdez, Kaplan, & Codina, 2000;Vesely et al, 2004;Zimmerman et al, 2008). Well-being has been found to be strongly and negatively related to more dangerous risk behaviors, with the most severe risk in the illicit drug use category (hard drug use, inhalant use, injecting drug use and prescription drug misuse) and driving-related risks, like impaired driving, as well as unsafe sexual behavior (Arnett, 2000).…”

Design, development and validity testing of the gang affiliation risk measure (GARM)

“…Although conduct disorder (CD) (Lahey et al, 1999;Howell & Egley, 2005;Madden, 2013) and antisocial personality disorder (Coid et al, 2013;Valdez et al, 2000) (given that violence exposure and violent victimisation distinguished this group from the nongang affiliated group) that antisocial behaviour has manifested as a fear-based post-traumatic reaction to perceived threat, or due to reduced emotional awareness (Lambie & Marcel, 2002) which is a known deficit resulting from developmental trauma and insecure attachment (Van der Kolk & d'Andrea, 2010;Ford & Courtois, 2013). Social modelling of problem solving using instrumental violence must also be considered.…”