Psychopathy Personality and Crime

Psychopathy Personality and Crime

Introduction

Psychopathy is a personality disorder characterized by maladaptive personality traits. The fact that this disorder associated with the control of affective and interpersonal deficits, leading to harmful behavior, has led to deductions that psychopathy is a criminal personality. However, many of the deductions and perceptions on these issues remain to be misunderstandings and misconceptions. More researches continue to be carried to clarify some of these misconceptions. One area of weakness and a contributing factor to the aspect of misconception is the fact that since the disorder id associated with antisocial traits and crime, the studies are carried among incarcerated people.

Therefore, there is a need to break out of the cocoon and consider the problem in a different population in order to certify the misconception that psychopathy patients are only criminals. In essence, the disorder is manageable, and through behavior change therapies, the disorder has been identified as a factor in behavioral change, positive behavioral change for that matter. Thus, this paper will seek to establish whether psychopathy personality traits are factors in successful criminology. The research question for the paper would be: what is the relationship between psychopathy personality traits (manipulativeness) and criminal success (Avoiding detection) among psychopathic women outside correctional settings. The notion has been psychopathic persons are superficially charming and manipulative. As such, it is considered they are capable of avoiding detection and arrest once they commit crimes.

Literature Review

Different studies have done to establish the linkage between psychopathy personality traits with criminal prevalence, delinquency as well as the connection to genetic changes. Tal Ben-Taacov et al. (2018) conducted research to establish the link between psychopathy and intelligence among women. This study was meant to fill the gap left, as many other studies focus on male incarcerated psychopaths. This study found out there is a positive correlation between psychopathy and intellectual functioning. Indeed, this study proved some of the thought-to-be misconceptions. It held that intelligent psychopaths are less prone to aggression since they use their cognitive abilities to plan and execute high-level nonviolent crimes. These findings prove the trait of manipulation. In essence, these findings suggest that those incarcerated only had a low score in intelligence and psychopathy traits.

Another study by Kiehl, K. A., & Hoffman, M. B. (2011) explored the history of psychopathy disorder. The study aimed at identifying significant disparities in criminal behavior between the psychopaths and the non-psychopath individuals. The study held that psychopaths are 20 to 25 times more like to be incarcerated than non-psychopaths. Besides the superficial charm, which has been identified as one of the traits that land them in crime, this study identified other factors. One of the main factors here was need for stimulation. As a result of this need, psychopaths have been associated with drug trafficking and use. The study used criminal justice records; therefore, there is a chance of bias since those outside the cells were not represented in the findings. This is another reason why a study that focuses on free psychopaths is pretty essential.

Brooks et al. (2016) carried a study that targeted individuals outside the correctional setting. However, his samples had a history with the correctional service since he considered a community-based sample of psychopaths under probation and parole. A second sample included professionals in the correctional department. The author here established theoretical differences among these different groups. Analysis from the offenders led to different conclusions from those from professionals. In both cases, however, there was an indication of levels of self-centered impulsivity and antisocial characteristics. To this end, it can be deduced that psychopathy personality traits have varied influence on different populations, necessitating a study for those who have no history in correctional systems.

Research Proposal

1. Research Design

The study is going to explorative in nature. It will be designed to establish the relationship between manipulativeness as a personality trait in psychopathy and the possibility of detection. The study is going to target women, both offenders and those who have not yet been convicted of any crime.

1. Data Methods

The study will utilize both primary and secondary data. The study will develop oriented questionnaires to help collect personality and criminal data for primary data. It will also rely on correctional data on specific persons, especially those who have a prior history with the correctional system for secondary data.  The Levenson tool will be used to determine psychopathy scores for the different members of the sample. This is because this score has proven reliable in different studies. The correlation between the two variables will be established to facilitate inferences. Correlational measures are vital because they allow for at a glance comparison.

Discussion

Considering the available literature about the entire topic of psychopathy and the prevalence of crime, there is expected to be a positive correlation between the two variables identified in this study. Such a correlation will be an indication that women who are psychopathic are prone to be successful in crime. However, the literature indicates that psychopaths are likely to commit crimes, but in most cases, they end up with the correctional systems. This could be attributed to the fact that their superficial charms and manipulations help them in conning people, but they find it difficult to evade detection. This is an aspect that the current study seeks to establish.

There are two theoretical applications attached to these findings. One regards to psychopathy and gender. Now that the study is based on female individuals with psychopathic personality traits, the study can be used to explore the gender prevalence of the phenomenon. Available literature shows that men are more prevalent in psychopathic criminal behavior than women. This study will help prove this conception. The second application regards psychopathy and criminal behavior in general. Here criminal behavior refers to committing crimes and avoiding them. By establishing the possibility of women going undetected after crimes, we will be able to draw conclusions with regard to the role of psychopathic traits in criminal behavior.

These findings are useful in the real world in several ways. One, the criminal justice system needs more understanding of these kinds of people to ease their handling of related cases. Concerned personnel will be able to develop informed correctional measures to help these people. The second significance regards to treatment and intervention in the medical view. Therapies have been tried mostly with little success. This kind of knowledge dramatically helps in developing therapies for this disorder.

References

Blonigen, D. M., Hicks, B. M., Krueger, R. F., Patrick, C. J., & Iacono, W. G. (2005). Psychopathic personality traits: heritability and genetic overlap with internalizing and externalizing psychopathology. Psychological medicine, 35(5), 637–648. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0033291704004180

Brooks, N., Fritzon, K., & Watt, B. (2016). Understanding the manifestation of psychopathic personality characteristics across populations (Doctoral dissertation, Bond University).

Dhingra, Katie & Boduszek, Daniel. (2013). Psychopathy and Criminal Behaviour – A Psychosocial Research Perspective. Journal of Criminal Psychology. 3. 10.1108/JCP-06-2013-0014.

Kiehl, K. A., & Hoffman, M. B. (2011). THE CRIMINAL PSYCHOPATH: HISTORY, NEUROSCIENCE, TREATMENT, AND ECONOMICS. Jurimetrics, 51, 355–397.

Marczyk, G., DeMatteo, D., & Festinger, D. (2005). Essentials of research design and methodology. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.