Psychopathy: Assessment and Forensic Implications

Abstract

Psychopathy was the first personality disorder to be recognized in psychiatry. The concept has a long historical and clinical tradition, and in the last decade a growing body of research has supported its validity. 1, p 28 I n the decade following this 1998 statement, the theoretical and empirical literature on psychopathy has expanded virtually at an exponential rate, with the addition of well over 500 scientific publications and many books and edited volumes. Much of this literature examines and evaluates the application of psychopathy to the mental health and criminal justice systems, 2-4 where it has been described as "the most important and useful psychological construct yet discovered for criminal justice policies" 5, p 231 and as "what may be the most important forensic concept of the early 21st century." 6, book jacket However, the past few years have also seen a dramatic increase in basic research based on the theories and methodologies from basic science including, but certainly not limited to, behavioural genetics, developmental psychopathology, cognitive-affective neuroscience, biochemistry, general personality theory, 7 and organizational psychology. 8 In 2004, the SSSP was established as a vehicle for the exchange of ideas and research findings among international investigators. Because psychopathy is associated with so much social and personal damage and distress, the basic and applied research endeavours are now

Successful Psychopaths: Are They Unethical Decision-Makers and Why?

“…Although original conceptualizations of psychopathy acknowledged that criminality was not necessarily a correlate (Cleckley 1941), a majority of research has nevertheless focused on incarcerated or clinical Successful Psychopathy and Unethical Decision-Making 141 populations. As a result, such studies have often found psychopathy to be related to violent criminal behavior (Cornell et al 1996;Hare and Neumann 2009;Salekin et al 1996), high rates of recidivism (Hemphill 1998), and misbehavior in institutional settings (Hill et al 2004). Although such studies confirm what the general public perceives psychopathy to be in terms of criminality (Furnham et al 2009), the findings fail to capture the range of behaviors that may be exhibited by successful psychopaths, who by definition have typically avoided the type of extreme actions that lead to institutionalization or incarceration.…”

Psychopathic traits in adolescents are associated with higher structural connectivity

“…While there is still substantial debate on the status of antisocial behavior being either an integral part of the psychopathy construct (Hare and Neumann, 2009) or rather a consequence of its other features (Cooke and Michie, 2001), recent studies have converged on a three-factor model of the psychopathic personality, consisting of callous-unemotional, grandiosemanipulative and impulsive-irresponsible traits (Cooke and Michie, 2001;Salekin et al, 2004).…”

Assessing the reliability and validity of the Self-Report Psychopathy Scales in a UK offender population

“…At present, the PCL-R (Hare, 2003) is one of the most widely used and respected measures with considerable research supporting its reliability and validity (Hare & Neumann, 2006;Skeem, Polascheck, Patrick, & Lilienfeld, 2011). Considered by some to be the gold standard for assessing psychopathy (Hare & Neumann, 2010), there are various strengths and weaknesses to this commonly used assessment. Reviewing information across a lifespan and from a range of sources, the PCL-R offers a comprehensive review of an individual's functioning.…”