Childhood maltreatment and aggressive behaviour in violent offenders with psychopathy (original) (raw)
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Abuse in childhood and psychopathic traits in a sample of violent offenders
Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 2015
A significant body of research underlines the link between the exposure to abuse in childhood and subsequent criminal behaviors. Research on the role played by childhood interpersonal trauma in the development of psychopathy, however, is still scant. The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between childhood experiences of abuse and psychopathic traits in a group of violent offenders from Italy. Seventy-eight inmates who were convicted of violent crimes participated in this study. Participants were administered the Traumatic Experience Checklist to assess childhood experiences of emotional, physical, and sexual abuse, and the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) to assess psychopathic traits. Almost two thirds of the participants reported either emotional, physical, or sexual abuse in childhood, with 17% having experienced all 3 types of abuse investigated in this study. Emotional abuse resulted in a positive predictor of PCL-R total scores and its Interpersonal-Affective and Lifestyle-Antisocial factors. This suggests that emotional abuse in childhood, in combination with neurobiological and temperamental vulnerabilities, can foster the development of psychopathic traits.
The Journal of Forensic Psychiatry & Psychology, 2014
Background: Evidence suggests the relationship between personality disorder (PD) and violence in offenders might be clarified by considering subgroups of PD offenders defined by patterns of PD comorbidity. Aim: to identify patterns of PD comorbidity associated with severe violence, defined by its severity, quantity and age of onset (Violence Index: VI) in a forensic sample of 100 PD offenders. Methods: Correlations were first computed between VI and a range of personality and criminological variables; next, patients with antisocial/borderline comorbidity were compared with other PD patients; finally, regression analysis was conducted to identify unique predictors of VI. Results: The antisocial deviance factor of psychopathy and antisocial/borderline comorbidity were each significantly and independently associated with severe violence. Patients showing both a high psychopathy score and antisocial/borderline comorbidity had a significantly greater VI than those without these characteristics. Conclusion: PD patients with high psychopathy co-occurring with borderline and antisocial PDs show a criminal profile characterised by a high degree of serious violence.
A Meta-Analysis of Childhood Maltreatment in Relation to Psychopathic Traits
2021
Psychopathy is a personality disorder characterized by a mix of traits belonging to four facets: affective (e.g., callous/lack of empathy), interpersonal (e.g., grandiosity), behavioral instability (e.g., impulsivity, poor behavioral controls), and social deviance (e.g., juvenile delinquency, criminal versatility). Several scholars have argued that early childhood maltreatment impacts the development of psychopathy, although views regarding its role in the four facets differ. We conducted a meta-analysis including 47 studies comprising a total of 349 effect sizes and 12,737 participants, to investigate the association between the four psychopathy facets and four types of child maltreatment: physical abuse, emotional abuse, neglect, and sexual abuse.We found support for a moderate link between overall psychopathy and childhood physical abuse, emotional abuse, and neglect, as well as overall childhood maltreatment. The link between psychopathy and childhood sexual abuse was small, but...
Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma, 2006
This article examines the evidence regarding the presence of a subgroup of antisocial and potentially psychopathic batterers, Matthew T. Huss, PhD, MLS, is Assistant Professor, Creighton University, Omaha, NE. His research interests generally revolve around risk assessment and risk management in specific populations (e.g., domestic violence and sex offenders) and forensic psychology in general.
Background: The link between early traumatic experiences of abuse/neglect and criminal behaviour has been widely demonstrated. Less is known, however, about the relationship between these experiences and the development of psychopathic personality. Objective: This study investigated childhood relational trauma in a group of violent offenders from Italy. We hypothesised a higher level of early relational trauma associated with higher scores on psychopathy. Method: Twenty-two offenders convicted for violent crimes aged 22Á60 (M 038, SD011) participated in this study. Participants were selected by the Italian justice system for an experimental research programme aiming at the evaluation of psychopathic personality traits among violent offenders. Within the group, 14 participants (64%) had committed murder, 4 (18%) had committed rape, and 4 (18%) were convicted child sex offenders. The Traumatic Experience Checklist was used to assess childhood relational trauma; the Hare Psychopathy Checklist*Revised (PCL-R) was used to assess psychopathy. Results: There was a high prevalence of childhood experiences of neglect and abuse among the offenders. Higher levels of childhood relational trauma were found among participants who obtained high scores on the PCL-R. There was also a significant negative association between age of first relational trauma and psychopathy scores. Conclusions: Findings of this study suggest that an early exposure to relational trauma in childhood can play a relevant role in the development of more severe psychopathic traits.
Aggressive Behavior, 2007
The proliferation of specialized domestic batterer treatment programs suggests that batterers differ from other offenders in important ways. The psychopathic personality represents a constellation of personality traits, which may be relevant to the differentiation of batterers from other offenders. In a sample of 172 county jail inmates, we examined whether antisocial batterers can be distinguished from the larger pool of antisocial offenders on the basis of the four-facet model of psychopathy identified for the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R). Batterer/non-batterer status was positively related to the PCL-R affective facet and negatively related to the lifestyle facet, but there was no significant relationship between PCL-R total scores and this criterion. Results suggest that antisocial batterers are characterized by deficient affective experience and by reduced impulsivity and irresponsibility compared with other antisocial offenders. Implications are discussed in light of specialized treatments for batterers.
Psychopathy Traits and Violent Assault Among Men With and Without History of Arrest
Journal of interpersonal violence, 2016
Although research suggests that the antisocial behavior (ASB) facet of psychopathy generally carries the greatest predictive power for future violence, these findings are drawn primarily from forensic samples and may reflect criterion contamination between historical violence and future violence perpetration. Likewise, these findings do not negate the association of other psychopathy facets to violence or their role in the development of violence, nor do they offer practical utility in the primary prevention of violence. There are a number of empirical and theoretical reasons to suspect that the callous affect (CA) facet of psychopathy may demonstrate stronger statistical association to violence in nonforensic populations. We tested the association of CA to severe acts of violence (e.g., assault with intent to harm, injure, rape, or kill) among men with and without history of arrest (N = 600) using both the three- and four-facet models of psychopathy. CA was robustly associated with...
Psychopathy and the dimensions of personality disorder in violent offenders
Personality and Individual Differences, 1998
The relationship of factors of personality disorder to psychopathy was investigated to determine whether psychopathy is more appropriately construed as a dimension of personality disorder rather than as one of several discrete categories of personality disorder. Comparisons were also made of the associations of personality disorders and psychopathy with measures of established personality dimensions, criminality and lifetime psychopathology. Male violent offenders detained in English prisons and a maximum security psychiatric hospital (N= 167) were assessed with the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III Axis II disorders (SCID-II) and the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R). Factor analysis of personality disorder measures yielded four factors identified as impulsivity, detachment, sensitivity and compulsivity. The first three factors were related to measures of the personality dimensions of agreeableness, extraversion and neuroticism, respectively. The PCL-R correlated highly with the impulsivity factor. Both had significant associations with violent and nonviolent criminality, but relationships to psychopathology were limited to substance abuse history. The results replicate previous findings on the dimensional structure of personality disorders and support a dimensional conception of psychopathy.