Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2011 Summer:51:355-397.

THE CRIMINAL PSYCHOPATH: HISTORY, NEUROSCIENCE, TREATMENT, AND ECONOMICS

Kent A Kiehl  1 , Morris B Hoffman  2
Affiliations

THE CRIMINAL PSYCHOPATH: HISTORY, NEUROSCIENCE, TREATMENT, AND ECONOMICS

Kent A Kiehl et al. Jurimetrics. 2011 Summer.

Abstract

The manuscript surveys the history of psychopathic personality, from its origins in psychiatric folklore to its modern assessment in the forensic arena. Individuals with psychopathic personality, or psychopaths, have a disproportionate impact on the criminal justice system. Psychopaths are twenty to twenty-five times more likely than non-psychopaths to be in prison, four to eight times more likely to violently recidivate compared to non-psychopaths, and are resistant to most forms of treatment. This article presents the most current clinical efforts and neuroscience research in the field of psychopathy. Given psychopathy's enormous impact on society in general and on the criminal justice system in particular, there are significant benefits to increasing awareness of the condition. This review also highlights a recent, compelling and cost-effective treatment program that has shown a significant reduction in violent recidivism in youth on a putative trajectory to psychopathic personality.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Antisocial Personality Disorder and Psychopathy Among Incarcerated Populations
Figure 2
Figure 2
Drug Abuse-Dependence and Psychopathy Among Incarcerated Populations
Figure 3
Figure 3
Recidivism Among Psychopaths
Figure 4
Figure 4
Violent Recidivism Among Psychopaths
Figure 5
Figure 5
Violent Sexual Recidivism Among Psychopaths
Figure 6
Figure 6
Violent Recidivism Juvenile Offenders
Figure 7
Figure 7
The Paralimbic System
Figure 8
Figure 8
Moral Decision Making in Psychopaths
Figure 9
Figure 9
The fMRI of an Affective Memory Task in Criminal Pyschopaths
Figure 10
Figure 10
The fMRI Results for Response Inhibition Task
Figure 11
Figure 11
Two Year Follow-Up of Youth Treatment Study
Figure 12
Figure 12
Projected Return on $10,000 Investment in Treatment
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Hare Robert D. Psychopathy: A Clinical Construct Whose Time Has Come. Crim Just & Behav. 1996;23:25.. See also Coid Jeremy, et al. Prevalence and Correlates of Psychopathic Traits in the Household Population of Great Britain. Int’l JL & Psychiatry. 2009;32:67., who estimated prevalence of psychopathy to be .06 to 1.6%. We will, for now, continue the tradition of focusing on psychopathy as an essentially male condition. Though there are female psychopaths, their incidence in the general population is estimated to be much less than males. Nicholls Tonia L, et al. Psychopathy in Women: A Review of its Clinical Usefulness for Assessing Risk for Aggression and Criminality. Behav Sci & L. 2005;23:779, 785.. This no doubt explains in large part why females are so underrepresented (only 7%) in our prisons. Recently, there seems to be increased research interest in female psychopathy, and an increasing debate about whether the Hare instruments are properly capturing the female version of the disorder. See Vitale Jennifer E, Newman Joseph P. Using the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised with Female Samples: Reliability, Validity, and Implications for Clinical Utility. Clinical Psychol. 2001;8:117.Warren Janet I, et al. Psychopathy in Women: Structural Modeling and Comorbidity. Int’l JL & Psychiatry. 2003;26:223.

    1. The latest census data show that as of 2010 there were approximately 115.2 million noninstitutionalized males in the U.S. ages of 18 and over (n=308,745,538 total U.S. population, less 24.3% of those under age 17; and less 50.7% all females = ~n=115,224,144 adult males in the United States. Quickfacts. U.S. Census Bureau; http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/00000.html (last visited Sept. 12, 2011)

    1. Sabol William J, et al. US Dept of Just, Bureau of Justice Statistics Bulletin: Prisoners in 2008. 2009 available at http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/glance/tables/corr2tab.cfm.

    1. For a discussion of the incidence of psychopathy in prisons, jails, parole, and probation see infra text accompanying notes 110–11.

    1. These disorders have prevalence rates, in the lowest end of the reported Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) ranges, of 1% (0.5% (schizophrenia), 0.5% (anorexia), 0.4% (bipolar I), 0.5% (bipolar II) and 0.5% (paranoia). Am. Psychiatric Ass’n, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: DSM-IV-TR 308, 385, 395, 587, 692, 704 (4th ed. 2000).

LinkOut - more resources