Psychopathetic personality disorder or psychopathy is a mental disorder that is characterized with extreme self-centeredness and amoral traits (Sperry, 2016). At the same time, the condition is characterized by interpersonal deficits such as deceitfulness, grandiosity, and lies. Moreover, the victims lack empathy and are most times merciless. They also have no guilt feelings and suffer no remorse after committing ills. The Diagnostic Manual (DM) records that the condition is diagnosed using the following criteria: victims show extreme thresholds for aggressiveness and emotional stimulation. They also show high manipulative characteristics. The victims as well have two basic emotions: envy and anger. They also view themselves as omnipotent because they believe that they control the world. The above means that they believe that they have the capacity to make anything happen. Moreover, victims view everyone else as manipulative, selfish, and dishonorable.In short, they see themselves in others (Weiner, 2016).
Sperry (2016) also states thatPsychopathetic people defend themselves by attempting to control everything that surrounds them. In his view, Sperry also says that the victims elude criminal prosecution by exploiting all the loopholes in the law. As would be expected,people who suffer Psychopathetic personality disorder always fall on the wrong side of the law. The intention of this research is to determine if Psychopathetic mental disorder makes people more prone to victimization by their peers. It establishes whether people take advantage of the psychopaths when it comes to reporting crime victims. It also establishes if these people are sometimes incarcerated simply for victimizationreasons.
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Method
The method used to conduct this study is literature review. The research studies primary and secondary sources written by other researchers to identify the prevalent trends in Psychopathetic personality disorder. Specifically, they focused on the association that occurs between the disorder and criminality. Comparisons were drawn between the differentreports before drawing the conclusion. In addition, they identified the gaps that exist and that need to be addressed using future research.
At the same time, a personal study was conducted at the jail whereby the author used a study groupto interview the victims who were incarcerated with the permission of California County Jail legal officer.
Results
The section reveals reports from the two studies separately .
From The Literature Review
According to Beaver et. al (2016), psychopaths have often frustrated the law enforcement agendas and frustrated the public. The report indicates that although the total amount of psychopaths is 1% of the total population, they account for 25% of all the inmates in America. Consequently, the researchers conclude that there exists no other criminal variable that has such consistent and strong effects on criminal aspects. Scholars suggest that there is need to develop crime causation theories around psychopathy.Nevertheless, the author identified a gap in the research findings so far presented since none has identified the relationship between psychopathy and victimization. It is given that some people in the societies can take advantages of the criminal tendencies of the Psychopathetic people in the security. Consequently, these people commit crimes and get away at the expense of thosesuffering Psychopathetic disorder. Beaver et. al (2016) states that lack of self-control among the people suffering Psychopathetic mental disorder is a leading cause for victimization among the victims. Besides, the research indicated that offenders are more likely to be victimized than non-offenders are. Since most Psychopathetic people have previously been convicted, they are easy targets for victimization.
Additionally, the report by Beaver et. al (2016) posits environmental and lifestyle factors are leading predictors of victimization. People living in disadvantaged sections are most likely to be victims of crimes. Association with delinquent people is the most popular environmental and lifestyle factor that causes victimization. Since most of the victims of Psychopathetic disorder have previously been incarcerated, they have close links with otherdelinquents. Notably, most of the antisocial peers have a tendency of victimizing the people in their peer groups.
Contradictorily, Beaver et. al (2016) also state that psychopaths also have traits that insulate them from victimization. The group is associated with a higher degree of intelligence than other offenders are. The above implies that they are more likely to victimize others than to be victimized. At the same time, most of them are introverts, meaning that they might not be victimized easily as other people may. The two reportsabove contradict each other leaving room for more research as done in the following section by Beaver et. al (2016).
Beaver et. al (2016) used a sample of Saudi Arabian Youth who attended a public school in Jeddah Saudi Arabia in 2014. All students participating in the study needed to ask their parents for permission. Furthermore, one was allowed to exit the group if they felt uncomfortable during the study, as participation was voluntary. Of the 800 eligible youth, only 494 took part in the study, and this constituted of 61.75% of the entire population. Despite that, only 311 youth who filled out the survey across all scales and variables were chosen for the final sample. Integrity of the surveywas maintained by putting certain measures into consideration among them translating to Arabic and English to ensure no distortion occurred in the questions due to language barriers. Still, the cultural contents in Saudi were observed andthose questions that were deemedculturally insensitive were cut off from the final report. Finally, the Institution Review Board (IRB) approved the survey instruments research project and data collection strategy at the King Abdul-AzizInstitution.
Victimization was measured by asking the question if violence had been used on the participant or a member of their household in theirneighborhood. Only 9% indicated that they or their family members had been victimized. Again, the Psychopathetic personality characteristics were measured using the Levenson Self Report Psychopathy (LSRP) scale. The above is a 26-item scale that measures behavioralpatterns that are associated with psychopathy. The youth were presented with the 26 items, and each time they were offered four-points-Likert coding with 1 meaning strongly disagree, 2meaning somewhat disagree, 3 somewhat agree, and 4 stronglyagree. Theresearchers summed up the items with higher values indicating Psychopathetic tendencies.
Furthermore, three scales, which were theoretically derived, were used. Low self-control was measured using questions of whether the parties lose their temper fast. They were also asked if they sometimes do risky things just for the fun of it. The 4 choices were similar to those mentioned in the previous section. The responses in the section were then used to come up with low self-control scales in the study.
The second theoretical measure tapped into each youth’s arrest history. The above helped to obtain the variation between victimization and Psychopathetic disorder traits. The students were asked if they had been taken in by the police for delinquent reasons in the last 12 months. They were supposed to ignore minor traffic violation issues. 0 meant no arrest and 1 at least one arrest.
Thirdly, the scale established if there is a link between victimization and Psychopathetic personality traits. The researchers wanted to establish the association between victimization and Psychopathetic delinquent states.
The control measures used in the study included nationality, gender, and age. The analysis was then done to determine the relationship between Psychopatheticpersonality traits and victimization of the participants.
Results Primary Report From The Jail
We established from the records the people who were Psychopathetic in the jail and made some survey questions that would help us establish if they were victimized. At the same time, we made them sit in lie detectors so that every time they answered us falsely, we should disregard the answers. A control group of the non-psychotic group was also used to answer questions in the same survey. The reports were then compiled using specified models.
Discussion
The data from Saudi Arabian youth indicated that 9% of the youth were victimized. The above is lower than the rate in the US, whichamountsto 30 to 50% in all youth reports. The rate at the California county jail also revealed an up to 50% victimization level among the inmates who were psychotic as compared to 20% among those who were not psychotic. The lower rates in Saudi could be the strict restriction to alcohol and drug youth. Moreover, the Psychopathetic personality traits were a predictor of victimization according to the reports. Delinquent peers scale was also related to victimization in the study.
Beaver et. al (2016) discovered that there is a statistically positive association between Psychopathetic personality disorder and odds of being victimized. Those who scored highly on Psychopathetic traits also scored highly on victimization. It also revealed that low levels of self-control are unrelated to victimization. At the same time, the study revealed that arrest history has a positive on the odds of victimization. At the same time. delinquent peers scale also has a positive association with victimization.
On the other hand, the California County jail interview reports revealed to us that half of the Psychopathetic people in the jail had been victimized in one instance or another. Others indicated that they had witnessed their friends and peers being victimized. The same report also showed that 20% of the people who were not Psychopathetic had been victimized at one point. The above revealed to us that there is a higher association between Psychopathetic mental disorder and victimization. However, that did not at all discredit the fact that Psychopathetic people highly engage in criminal activities.
Recommendations
The study on victimization is limited to Saudi Arabian youths and does not reflect the results in other parts of the world. At the same time, the primary report has only been conducted in one American county jail and reports need to be done in other sections. As such, similar reports should be conducted in other regions of the world to give a more credible report.
References
Beaver, K., Al-Ghamdi, M., Kobeisy, A., Alqurashi, F., Connolly, E., & Schwartz, J. (2016). The Association Between Psychopathic Personality Traits and Victimization and Exposure to Violence in a Sample of Saudi Arabian Youth. Psychiatric Quarterly , 87 (2), 217-228. doi:10.1007/s11126-015-9383-1
Sperry, L., (2016). Handbook of Diagnosis and Treatment of DSM-5 Personality Disorders: Assessment, Case Conceptualization, and Treatment, Third Edition . Routledge: London.
Weiner, I. B. (2016). Handbook of psychology: 11 . Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
