Psychopathy in Italian female murderers

Abstract

Over the years, the number of homicides in Italy has progressively decreased, ultimately becoming one of the lowest rates in Europe (357 = 0.7 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2017, according to ISTAT). The number of homicides committed by women was about 9% of the total number of homicides during our study period. The percentage has increased in recent years because the total number of homicides has decreased without a proportionate decrease in the number of female homicides. Indeed, murder is an unusual type of crime for a woman and is often associated with a mental disorder, so when a woman committed a homicide, a psychiatric assessment was often performed. A forensic psychiatry expert was assigned to investigate the offender's psychopathology and mental state at the time of the offense. The root causes of the crime remained unexplained, however, due to the lack of a psychiatric precedent to justify this kind of assessment. The role of psychopathy in homicide has seldom been studied in female offenders, even though psychopathy has an important role in violent crimes. The investigators examined, clinically and historically, a sample of women who committed murder with different levels of criminal responsibility (female homicide offenders found not guilty by reason of insanity, having partial criminal responsibility, and convicted as criminally responsible and sentenced to prison) to identify the prevalence of the psychopathic dimension and its possible role in this sample. Prevalence and degree of psychopathic traits were examined in these female offenders using the Psychopathy Checklist‐Revised. This study showed that females who had committed homicide were likely to suffer from mental illness; most of the homicidal acts were committed impulsively; and most female homicides occurred within the family, especially among women who were psychotic, but less so if they were psychopathic. Psychopathy tended to co‐occur more with personality disorders than with psychotic psychopathology. Psychopathy was more evident among female homicide offenders who had been abused or traumatized. Psychopathic women who killed had high factor F1 scores and low antisocial component of factor F2.

Women and Men who Committed Murder: Male/Female Psychopathic Homicides

“…This is a follow‐up study of our previous research on the same topic (18,40,44,45), which was initially conducted in what was then the only forensic psychiatric hospital for women in Italy (Castiglione delle Stiviere). The present study involved males and females who had killed or attempted to kill while suffering from a mental disorder, were judged not responsible or with substantially diminished criminal responsibility, and then were admitted to one of the three REMS (63) of Puglia and Basilicata as a security measure to reduce the risk of criminal recidivism.…”

“…In addition, the validated Italian version of the PCL‐R was administered (66,67). A PCL‐R threshold score equal to or greater than 25 was set to identify the condition of psychopathy, as indicated in studies conducted on European populations (68,69) and as applied in our previous research (18,35,40).…”

“…For convenience, we designated men and women who committed or attempted homicide as “homicidal.” The term per se here does not imply a risk of committing homicide in the future. We had already studied a sample of homicidal women (18). In the present study, we compared a sample of females who perpetrated or attempted homicide with a group of homicidal men.…”

“…In these cases, the motive for murder is often revenge, triggered by persecutory (16) delusions (17). It is known that most psychotic homicides involve family members (8), especially if the offender is a woman (18).…”

Vulnerabilities of High-Security Forensic Psychiatry Residences in Italy during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative survey and a proposal for recovery and prevention

“…With respect to the vulnerability to traumatic features, clinical and gender differences should be taken into account, with inpatients having borderline personality disorder and women respectively being more predisposed to develop such type of symptoms (Bohle and de Vogel, 2017;Carabellese et al 2018;Carabellese et al 2019aCarabellese et al , 2019bCarabellese et al 2020;Sinai et al 2018).…”