There has been controversy to what exactly a psychopath is and it has been frequently mistaken with “antisocial personality disorder”(1660, small article). Psychopathy is a personality disorder and people who are diagnosed with it are “characterized by egocentricity, absence of empathy, absence of guilt, superficial charm, shallow emotions, absence of anxiety, and absence of long lasting relationships (Frick, o’ Brien, Wooten & McBurnett, 1994, p. 700).”There have been studies that have been done to try to see t

From the three studies one can assume that a psychopathic behavior held by a person can lead to a life of acts of crime. Sexual and violent offenders are groups in particular that have individuals who are psychopaths. But the first study, done by Simourd and Hoge (2000) found that the amount of psychopaths within their sample group was lower than they had suspected, this may lead to the conclusion that there is a lesser amount of psychopaths within the prison system than previously thought. It was cited by the authors that other researchers have stated that the rate of psychopaths within the prison system is between 15- 20%. Although, the number that does exists proves to be a figure that leads to the point that psychopaths are at high risk for committing crimes. The second study done by Porter et al. (2000) represents an interesting find, where a group of rapists contained more psychopaths than molesters, it can be related to the findings of Hersh and Grey- Little (1998). This is a very significant discovery; one can say that molesters are driven by forces other than a callous personality and that rapist and other people who act in aggressive sexual manners have psychopathic traits.

All of the studies discussed were looked upon a basis of psychology. The criminal behavior and conduct problems had been related to specific cognitive problems such as psychopathy. It is essential to learn how these disorders can be linked to behavior that can be dangerous to individuals or society as a whole. People who have been diagnosed as psychopaths or have psychopathic traits commonly perpetrate more crimes than those who do not show signs of the disorder. The disorder is found more commonly in serious violators of crime, such as violent offenders and rapist. It is also found in children who experience problems due to it. Cognitive distortion found in delinquent children can be related to psychopathy. These problems may lead to a criminal career in the future. Other behavior problems such as ADHD and AHII are also correlative with behavior problems of children.

This previous study had no sexual offenders among the sample group. Porter, Fairweather, Drugge, Herve, Birt, Boer (2000) did a study to find out how prevalent psychopaths were in different types of acts of sexual violence. Also using PCL-R, Porter et al. (2000) found that rapists and mixed rapist/ molesters were more psychopathetic than molesters. Rapists were defined as having one or more victim older than age of 14 and none under that age. The Mixed rapist and molesters group had both type of victims. Molesters were not found to have any distinct correlation with psychopathy. It was also found that mixed offenders had scored higher in factor 1 than factor 2 of

Some topics in this essay:
Hyperactive DisorderADHD, Liau Gibbs, Hartsough Lambert, Simourd Hoge, PCL-R Porter, Criminal Psychology, Psychopathy Crime, Gray- Little, Robert Hoge, Revised PCL-R, et al, found children, frick et al, et al 1994, simourd hoge, cognitive distortion, al 2000, psychopathic traits, predict criminal, psychopaths prison, et al 2000, simourd hoge 2000, al 1994, frick et, porter et al,