Psychopathy is a type of mental illness classified under a personality disorder. Psychopathy can sometimes be confused by antisocial personality disorder. Though the terms do overlap, because of their definitions, they are not the same. The term psychopath is derived from the Greek terms: “psyche” meaning spirit and “pathos” meaning feeling or suffering. Psychopathy is not in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder (DSM), the first edition did provide a definition. DSM I defined psychopathy to be:
“anti-social individuals who are always in trouble, profiting neither from experience nor punishment and maintaining no loyalties to any person, group, or code. They are frequently callous and hedonistic, showing marked emotional immaturity, with lack of responsibility, lack of judgment, and an ability to rationalize their behavior so that it appears warranted, reasonable, and justified” (Scott, 2014, p. 692).
From a scientific perspective, development, and diagnosis of a psychopath, and if there are emotions felt if a psychopath becomes a serial killer will be discussed. Whereas an analytical perspective inquires the prevalence of psychopathy in the United States, the relation between crime and psychopathy, and if there are effective treatments for psychopathic individuals.
Scientific Perspective of Inquiry
There are various methods to be diagnosed as a psychopath. One means of identifying a psychopath was developed by Canadian psychologist, Robert Hare in 1980. Hare created a Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) that includes four facets: interpersonal facets, affective features, lifestyle features, and antisocial features. Each of the facets lists different characteristics such as criminal versatility, lack of empathy, pathological lying, and a parasitic lifestyle (Scott, 2014). Other methods to measure psychopathy include the Triarchic Psychopathy Measure, Self-Report Psychopathy scale, and the Psychopathic Personality Inventory. All measure how various psychotic traits react to different environments (Viding & McCrory, 2018). One’s reaction to the environment may be due to mistreatment or neurobiological loss in the individual.
Some studies indicate that neurobiological loss, neglect from one’s parents, and maltreatment contribute to psychopathy. Research from Joanna Berg, Sarah Smith, Ashley Watts, Rachel Ammirati, Sophia Green, and Scott Lilienfeld (2018) believed there is a loss of the ventromedial prefrontal activity and amygdala that potentially leads to psychopathy. In addition, there are “genes code for proteins that influence characteristics such as neurocognitive vulnerabilities may increase the risk of developing psychopathic features” (Viding & McCorory, 2018, p. 569). As for environmental factors abuse, inadequate parenting, and abuse are onset factors of psychopathy. However, more research needs to be done to determine if there are more biological and environmental factors or if there is a stronger correlation between the factors stated. Though, research does mention that children who were neglected by their parents were more likely to become a psychopathic offender (Berg et al., 2013), possibly to have some kind of attention or feel some kind of emotion.
There is no direct relationship between psychopathy and a possible feel of emotions if one psychopathic individual becomes a serial killer. Adult psychopaths usually become more aggressive and violent in a criminal manner because of their lack of morals. Psychopathy is seen as a lust and organized murderer. An organized murder is known to charm or con their victims then commit the crime (Jalava, Griffiths, & Maraun, 2015). An organized offender is the perfect psychopath because the “offender [is] a combination of rationality and animalism, a person with overwhelming sexual fantasies and drives, but one who fulfilled them with impersonal efficiency” (Jalava et al., 2015, p. 70). One psychologist compared a psychopathic’s potential to hurt a victim is like an alcoholic wanting a drink (Jalava et al. 2015). Moreover, since there is no kind of remorse for the victims, psychopaths usually continue committing violent crimes.
Analytical Perspective of Inquiry
According to the article, “Epidemiology, Comorbidity, and Behavioral Genetics of Antisocial Personality Disorder and Psychopathy by Kimberly Werner, Lauren Few, and Kathleen Bucholz, it is difficult to know the exact percentage of psychopaths in an area. The reason being is that the assessment requires criminal history which can be difficult to obtain for public use. Though the exact percentage of psychopaths may be unknown, an estimate reported by Robert Hare and Craig Neumann reported that 1.2% of the general population indicates the potential of being psychopathic and one percent meets clinical levels of psychopathy characteristics. Moreover, forensic psychiatric found that psychopathy is prevalent in three percent of their patients in a general population. In regard to sex, men are more likely to have psychopathic characteristics than women (Werner, Few, & Bucholz, 2015).
In terms of psychopathy and crime, a study was done in Italy consisting of 263 substance-abusing individuals (20% female and 80%) to determine the relationships between substance abuse and crime rates with psychopathic individuals. The individuals were divided into two groups: those with a criminal record and substance dependent and those who did not have a criminal record but were substance dependent. To determine if personality was a factor another “series of single-factor between-subjects multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVA) was performed” (Gori, Ponti, Tani, Iraci Sareri, Giannini, Meringolo, Craparo, Bruschi, Caretti, Cacioppo, Paterniti, & Schuldberg, 2017, p. 316). Each individual was categorized based on the crimes committed, for those who did commit a crime, and socio-demographic characteristics. The individuals with psychopathic traits showed they were substance abusers that committed crimes. However, some evidence indicated that individuals who were not substance abusers, found the world to be hostile, and had risk-taking behaviors had psychopathic traits too (Gori et. al, 2017). Therefore, there is a relationship between substance abuse and psychopathy, but it differs between individuals because, as shown in the study, individuals can be psychopathic without being dependent on substances. Though there are psychopathic individuals who can become violent and end up in prison, there are medications to help control one’s emotions and behaviors.
Various treatments are used on psychopathic individuals. Researchers believe that those who receive regular doses would be less likely to commit crimes, but there is still no effective medication for psychopaths to have a sense of empathy. Some of the medication used to treat psychopathy include antidepressants, anticonvulsant, lithium, psychostimulants, antipsychotics, and antianxiety drugs. Regardless of the medication given, psychotherapy would be done as well (Smith & Hung, 2013). One of the medications used on psychopaths is amphetamines. Psychopaths with the worst type of violent behavior benefitted from amphetamines because they began to have important relationships and become less violent. Besides amphetamines, tricyclic antidepressants were another medication given to individuals with personality disorders. A study was done with seventy-six patients “with major depression and a comorbid personality disorder…[and] 27% [of] the individuals” responded well to the antidepressants (Smith & Hung, 2013, p. 185). Besides medication, there is also behavior therapy. Aversion therapy occurs when an individual does some kind of bad behavior, then he or she is punished until the behavior is eliminated. Though there are some medications with good outcomes, there are some that should be avoided. Another experiment was done with Xanax, which was given to twelve individuals who were extremely violent (Smith & Hung, 2013). Though there are some medications available, there are some psychopaths do not want to be treated. Furthermore, therapies and medications sometimes do not work, so there will be some psychopaths left untreated. Psychopathy is a type of mental illness that needs more research done to better understand how and why people become psychopathic and more effective methods to help psychopathic individuals.