No / Workers in public sector organisations might expect any threat to their physical and psychological safety and wellbeing to fall far short of any unreasonable risk. However, the evidence is by no means certain. One of the most persistent and prevalent organisational perils is work victimisation. A propensity towards this type of abuse in government organisations is most disturbing, since they remain a major employer, and hence, have a direct bearing on the occupational fates of a large and growing number of personnel. This paper provides a brief discussion of work victimisation and focuses attention one of its most unrepentant and enigmatic perpetrators, the corporate psychopath. The paper highlights some individual and institutional measures designed to enable employees to mitigate the risk of abuse by these victimisers.

Yes / Advances in Virtual Reality (VR) technologies allow the investigation of simulated moral actions in visually immersive environments. Using a robotic manipulandum and an interactive sculpture, we now also incorporate realistic haptic feedback into virtual moral simulations. In two experiments, we found that participants responded with greater utilitarian actions in virtual and haptic environments when compared to traditional questionnaire assessments of moral judgments. In experiment one, when incorporating a robotic manipulandum, we found that the physical power of simulated utilitarian responses (calculated as the product of force and speed) was predicted by individual levels of psychopathy. In experiment two, which integrated an interactive and life-like sculpture of a human into a VR simulation, greater utilitarian actions continued to be observed. Together, these results support a disparity between simulated moral action and moral judgment. Overall this research combines state-of-the-art virtual reality, robotic movement simulations, and realistic human sculptures, to enhance moral paradigms that are often contextually impoverished. As such, this combination provides a better assessment of simulated moral action, and illustrates the embodied nature of morally-relevant actions. / Plymouth University and Seventh Framework Programme (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-ITN-604764)

Au niveau interpersonnel, la psychopathie implique un manque de considération d’autrui pouvant se manifester par la tromperie, la manipulation et l’exploitation. La présente thèse a investigué la relation entre les caractéristiques psychopathiques d'individus non incarcérés et la tendance à coopérer dans un jeu du dilemme du prisonnier itératif. Un total de 85 hommes ont été recrutés via une annonce qui ciblait des traits de personnalité correspondant à des caractéristiques psychopathiques exprimées de façon non péjorative. Plusieurs méthodes ont été employées pour rejoindre les participants : 46 ont participés en personne après avoir répondu à une invitation affichée dans un journal local ainsi que sur des babillards à proximité d'une université; 39 ont complété l'étude sur Internet après avoir été recrutés via un site web de petites annonces. Chaque participant a répondu à un questionnaire incluant l’Échelle Auto-rapportée de Psychopathie (Levenson, Kiehl, & Fitzpatrick, 1995) et l’Échelle Auto-rapportée des Indicateurs de Psychopathie de l’Enfance et de l’Adolescence (Seto, Khattar, Lalumière, & Quinsey, 1997). Ils ont également complété une simulation informatique du dilemme du prisonnier itératif comprenant 90 essais. La simulation informatique utilisée pour évaluer les participants en personne ainsi que la version accessible par Internet ont été conçues et programmées spécifiquement pour la présente thèse. La simulation informatique incluait trois stratégies souvent associées au dilemme du prisonnier itératif : donnant-donnant, donnant-donnant-généreux et gagne/reste-perd/change. Les analyses préliminaires ont montré que les participants vus en personne et ceux rejoints par Internet ne différaient pas en termes de variables sociodémographiques, des caractéristiques psychopathiques, de la désirabilité sociale et des réponses au dilemme du prisonnier. Une régression multiple standard a indiqué que les mesures psychopathiques ne pouvaient pas prédire le nombre total de choix coopératifs dans le jeu. Par contre, une corrélation négative a été trouvée entre les caractéristiques interpersonnelles et affectives de la psychopathie et la coopération dans le premier tiers du jeu. De plus, les participants qui présentaient davantage de caractéristiques psychopathiques interpersonnelles et affectives avaient plus souvent réussi à exploiter l'ordinateur en dénonçant alors que la simulation informatique coopérait. Des analyses multi-niveaux ont exploré la contribution de variables au niveau de la décision et au niveau de l'individu dans la prédiction du choix de coopérer ou de dénoncer lors de chaque essai du jeu; les interactions entre ces variables ont aussi été considérées. Les résultats ont montré que les variables au niveau de la décision influençaient généralement plus fortement les chances de coopérer que les variables au niveau de l'individu. Parmi les mesures de la psychopathie, seulement les caractéristiques interpersonnelles et affectives ont montré une association significative avec les chances de coopérer; les interactions avec le premier choix effectué dans le jeu et le premier tiers du jeu étaient significatives. Ainsi, si un participant avait coopéré au premier essai, la présence de caractéristiques psychopathiques interpersonnelles et affectives était associée à une diminution de ses chances de coopérer par la suite. Aussi, durant les 30 premiers essais du jeu, la présence de caractéristiques psychopathiques interpersonnelles et affectives était associée à une diminution des chances de coopérer. La stratégie adoptée par la simulation informatique n'avait pas d'influence sur le lien entre les caractéristiques psychopathiques et la probabilité de coopérer. Toutefois, le fait de jouer contre donnant-donnant était associé à de plus fortes chances de coopérer d'un essai à l'autre pour l'ensemble des participants. Globalement, les résultats suggèrent que les hommes non incarcérés présentant des caractéristiques psychopathiques ne seraient pas nécessairement portés à choisir systématiquement la non-coopération. En fait, les caractéristiques interpersonnelles et affectives de la psychopathie ont semblé se traduire par une tendance à faire bonne impression au départ, tenter rapidement d'exploiter autrui en dénonçant, puis finir par coopérer. Cette tendance comportementale est discutée, ainsi que la pertinence d'utiliser le dilemme du prisonnier itératif et les analyses multi-niveaux pour étudier le comportement interpersonnel des psychopathes. / Interpersonally, psychopathy involves a lack of consideration for others that can translate into deception, manipulation, and exploitation. The current thesis investigated the relationship between the psychopathic characteristics of non incarcerated men and the tendency to cooperate while playing an iterative version of the prisoner's dilemma game. A total of 85 men were recruited through advertisements that targeted personality traits corresponding to psychopathic characteristics formulated in a way that was not pejorative. A variety of methods was used to reach participants; 46 were tested in person after they replied to an invitation that appeared in a local journal as well as on bulletin boards close to a university; 39 participated via the Internet after they were recruited through a classified advertising website. Each participant completed a questionnaire including the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale (Levenson, Kiehl, & Fitzpatrick, 1995) and the Childhood and Adolescent Taxon Scale - Self-Report (Seto, Khattar, Lalumière, & Quinsey, 1997). They also played in a computer simulation of the iterative prisoner's dilemma lasting 90 trials. Both the computer simulation used to test participants in person and the Internet version were designed and programmed specifically for the present thesis. The computer simulation included three strategies often associated with the iterative prisoner's dilemma: tit-for-tat, generous-tit-for-tat, and win/stay-lose/shift. Preliminary analyses showed that participants tested in person and via the Internet did not differ in terms of sociodemographic variables, psychopathic characteristics, social desirability, or responses to the prisoner's dilemma. A standard multiple regression indicated that psychopathic measures could not predict the total number of cooperative choices in the prisoner's dilemma game. However, there was a negative correlation between interpersonal and affective characteristics of psychopathy and cooperation in the first third of the prisoner's dilemma game. Furthermore, participants showing more interpersonal and affective psychopathic characteristics tended to exploit the computer more often by defecting while the computer simulation cooperated. Multilevel analyses were used to explore the contribution of decision-level and individual-level variables to predict the choice to cooperate or to defect on each trial of the game; interactions between these variables were also considered. The results showed that variables at the decision level were generally associated with stronger odds of cooperating than individual-level variables. Among psychopathic measures, only the interpersonal and affective characteristics showed a significant association with the odds of cooperating; interactions with the first choice in the game and the first third of the game were significant. That is, if participants cooperated in the first trial, higher interpersonal and affective psychopathic characteristics were associated with decreased odds of cooperating. Also, during the first 30 trials of the game, participants with higher interpersonal and affective psychopathic characteristics were significantly more likely to defect. The type of strategy used by the computer simulation did not have an influence on the relationship between psychopathic characteristics and a participant's probability to cooperate. However, playing against tit-for-tat was associated with increased odds of cooperating from one trial to the next for all participants. Overall, the results suggest that non incarcerated men with psychopathic characteristics might not systematically choose to defect. Instead, the interpersonal and affective psychopathic characteristics appeared as a tendency to cooperate initially, then rapidly attempt to exploit by defecting, and finally cooperate. This behavioral pattern is discussed as well as the relevance of using the iterative prisoner's dilemma game and multilevel analyses to study interpersonal behavior in psychopaths.

This study examined the predictive value of the three dimensions of youth psychopathic personality towards delinquency, on delinquency through the application of hierarchical regression analysis, while controlling for gender. Dimensions being: Callous/Unemotional-, Impulsive/Irresponsible-, and Grandiose/Manipulative traits. The study included 891 (48% female) Swedish adolescents from a community sample with a mean age of 14.28 (SD=.94) years. A self-report instrument was used to assess psychopathic traits in youth, the Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory (YPI), consisting of 50 items and is specifically designed to lower the risk of response bias. Results: It was discovered that Impulsivity/Irresponsible behavior predicted statistically significant 14% of the variance in delinquency, and gender significantly predicted 4%. Callous/Unemotional predicted non-significant 0,3% and Grandiose/Manipulative predicted none of the variance in delinquency and was not significant. The findings regarding dimensions contradict the majority of research on the subject which has focused on CU-traits as main predictor of antisocial behavior, but in line with recent studies using a similar analytical approach showing Impulsivity/Irresponsible behavior as main predictor. The findings regarding gender are in line with previous research.

The sexual abuse of children is an issue that society must address with urgency and commitment, given the profoundly damaging effects and widespread occurrence of this kind of crime. Providing psychological treatment to identified offenders is an important endeavour of the criminal justice system, with the aim of reducing recidivism and thereby preventing future victims. This dissertation explores a number of areas relevant to the treatment of sexual offenders on a sample of 223 adult males who completed a prison-based programme for child sexual offenders in New Zealand. Specifically, the assessment of treatment outcome and its relationship with recidivism, risk assessment, and the influence of specific offender factors on estimates of treatment outcome and risk were investigated. Study 1 (N = 218) is an independent validation of the validity of the Violence Risk Scale: Sexual Offender Version (VRS:SO; Olver, Wong, Nicholaichuk, & Gordon, 2007), a recently developed risk assessment instrument for sexual offenders that incorporates both static and dynamic risk factors and contains protocols for the assessment of change as a result of treatment. Results indicate support for the inter-rater reliability, concurrent validity, and predictive validity of the VRS:SO with regard to sexual recidivism, with pre-treatment and post-treatment scores showing superior predictive validity relative to a widely used measure of static risk (Static-99; Hanson & Thornton, 1999) and a measure of "Deviance" based on a 4-factor battery of relevant psychometric tests (Allan, Grace, Rutherford, & Hudson, 2007). In Study 2 (N = 218), three separate methods of assessing proximal treatment outcome (representative of three categories of treatment outcome measures that have previously been applied in the literature) are applied and compared in terms of their predictive validity with regard to sexual recidivism, and the relative advantages and disadvantages of their use. These measures are: change on a battery of relevant psychometric tests administered prior to and following treatment; change across treatment on the VRS:SO; and post-treatment ratings of the attainment of treatment goals as measured by a modified version of Hogue’s (1994) Standard Goal Attainment Scaling for Sexual Offenders (SGAS). Results indicate that positive treatment outcomes as measured by all of these methods are associated with reduced sexual recidivism. SGAS scores are identified as being relatively simple and efficient to obtain, however the VRS:SO and the psychometric battery are both able to provide useful pre-treatment clinical information regarding potential treatment targets for a particular offender. Study 3 (N = 223) and Study 4 (N = 216) are explorations of the influence of particular offender characteristics on response to treatment and risk of recidivism. Of particular interest was the personality construct of psychopathy (measured using the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised, PCL-R; Hare, 1991), and both studies are attempted replications and extensions of previously reported interaction effects involving this construct (Heilbrun, 1979; Seto & Barbaree, 1999). The results of Study 3 indicate that there is no interaction effect between PCL-R scores and treatment outcome (as measured by the SGAS) on sexual recidivism, in contrast to an influential study by Seto and Barbaree (1999). Study 4 reports an interaction effect between PCL-R scores and intelligence on recidivism, such that higher than average IQ scores appear to moderate the well-known association between psychopathy and risk. Overall, the findings reported in this dissertation suggest the importance of considering dynamic factors as well as static factors in sex offender risk assessments, and support the premise that dynamic factors are changeable, with change being associated with changes in recidivism. The potential for certain offender characteristics to influence treatment response and risk of recidivism is highlighted, and several areas for further exploration are identified.

Callous-unemotional (CU) traits, an affective component of psychopathy, are associated with problematic outcomes in social relationships in adolescents. However, their association with problematic romantic relationships in young adults has not been the focus of research. In a community sample of 216 college students (167 females) between the ages of 18 to 50, the current study examined the association between CU traits and several important romantic relationship outcomes. Results indicated that CU traits showed positive associations with dominance and partner’s perceived submissiveness, but negative associations with relationship satisfaction, even after controlling for impulsivity and antisocial behavior. On the other hand, antisocial behavior showed unique positive associations with short-term mating, psychological aggression towards partner, and partner’s perceived CU traits, even after controlling for CU traits. Further, results indicated that CU traits, impulsivity, and antisocial behavior showed positive associations with physical aggression towards partner. However, once these variables were entered in a multiple regression model simultaneously, none of these associations remained significant, suggesting it is the shared variance across these three variables that accounts for physical aggression. Implications for research and treatment are discussed.

L’élaboration de programme d’interventions propres aux fraudeurs soulève la question de la particularité de leur personnalité. Des écrits suggèrent que la personnalité des fraudeurs présenterait des similitudes avec les traits psychopathiques. L’objectif de l’étude est donc de décrire et d’explorer ces traits chez des fraudeurs spécialisés incarcérés, et ce, à l’aide des questionnaires Psychopathic Personality Inventory (PPI) et Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS). Trois groupes de détenus (35 hommes, 17 femmes) ont rempli les questionnaires: fraudeurs spécialisés (n=23), autres délinquants sans crimes violents (ASV, n=19) et autres délinquants avec crimes violents (AAV, n=10). Un groupe d’étudiants (n=430) a aussi complété le PPI, permettant ainsi d’ajouter un groupe de comparaison. Les analyses ont permis de constater que le groupe de fraudeurs diffère peu des autres groupes quant à leurs traits psychopathiques. Cependant, ils sont moins enclins que le groupe d’AAV à adopter des pensées criminelles, fréquentes chez les psychopathes. / Developping specific intervention programmes for frauds raises the issue of personality characteristics. Studies suggest that the personality of fraudsters presents certain similarities with psychopathic traits. The goal of the study is to describe and explore the personality of incarcerated specialized fraudsters by using psychometric tests such as the Psychopathic Personality Inventory (PPI) and the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS). Three groups of inmates (35 men, 17 women) completed the questionnaires: fraud specialists (n = 23), offenders who committed non-violent crimes (n = 19) and offenders who committed violent crimes (n= 10). A group of students (n = 430) also completed the PPI, thereby adding a comparison group. Analyses revealed few differences between the psychopathic traits of fraudsters and those of the other groups' respondents. However, it was revealed that fraudsters were less likely to adopt criminal thoughts, common in psychopaths, than are the respondents from the AAV group.

Psychopathy research has focused primarily on characteristics of male offenders. With little empirical knowledge on psychopathy in women, gender differences within psychopathy are not well understood. To gain a better understanding of these differences, the current study used prototypical analysis to compare ratings of 242 forensic experts when considering their most representative case of male or female psychopathy. The present study investigated gender differences for psychopathic traits and Cluster B personality disorder criteria. Most aspects of psychopathy were less prototypical of female psychopaths than males. In particular, the antisocial behavior facet does not appear to apply to males and females equally. The distinction between Cluster B disorders and psychopathy was more ambiguous in females than males; however, the affective deficits facet differentiated psychopathy from Cluster B disorders across genders. Current research also raises the question of potential diagnostic gender bias in the assessment of psychopathy.

When assessing the risk of violence, increasing interest has been shown in bringing science and practice closer together. Moving from clinical intuition in the first generation of risk assessment via actuarial scales in the second generation to the structured professional judgments where risk assessments are today produces better, more valid results when assessing the risk of violence. One of the best predictors of violence is gender. Approximately 10% of the violent criminality can be attributed to women; even so, it is increasing, especially among young women. It is therefore important to examine risk assessments from a gender perspective. Another important factor when assessing the risk of violence is psychopathy and there are indications that there might be gender differences in this diagnosis. Thus, a special interest has been focused on psychopathy in this thesis. The purpose with this work is to explore the similarities and differences in assessing risk for violence in male and female mentally disordered offenders, while the overall aim is to validate the violence risk assessment instrument HCR-20 for Swedish offender populations. The risk assessments for all six studies in this thesis were made by trained personnel using the HCR-20 instrument, where psychopathy was diagnosed with the screening version of the Psychopathy Checklist (PCL:SV). The study populations were both male and female mentally disordered offenders in either the correctional or the forensic setting. The findings show that both the validity and the reliability of the HCR-20 and the PCL:SV were good and the clinical and risk management subscales were found to have better predictive validity than the historical scale. Another finding was that there were more similarities than differences between genders in the HCR-20, while the opposite applied to the PCL:SV, where the antisocial behavior was performed in a different manner. Moreover, it was found that the gender of the assessor might be a factor to take into account when assessing the risk of violence in women, where the recommendation was that at least one assessor should be female. The conclusions were that the HCR-20 and the PCL:SV can be used In Swedish offender populations with valid results. For female offenders, there are differences in the antisocial behavior that is assessed in order to diagnose psychopathy and these differences tend to underestimate psychopathy among female offenders. Furthermore, the gender of the assessor might be of greater importance than has previously been realized. The overall conclusion was that this thesis supports the structural professional judgment method of making risk assessments in order to prevent violence in the community.

Introdução: A psicopatia sempre foi associada a comportamentos imorais e frieza emocional, além de risco de reincidência criminal. Embora a frieza dos psicopatas seja bem estabelecida, não há consenso sobre o nível de discernimento moral desses indivíduos, existindo teorias propondo que eles não apresentam desenvolvimento moral adequado enquanto outras propõem que o que lhes falta é querer agir, não saber discernir o certo do errado. Já quando analisamos a relação entre essas três variáveis, psicopatia, imoralidade e frieza, os dados são ainda mais díspares, não existindo consenso sobre a necessidade ou não da presença de emoções para o amadurecimento moral. O estudo de sujeitos infratores encarcerados é interessante nesse contexto, uma vez que permite o controle de variáveis de confusão envolvidas nessa inter-relação, como influências ambientais, vivência criminal, grau de psicopatia, uso de drogas e QI. Em se tratando de jovens infratores, há ainda a vantagem de se estudar uma amostra homogênea quanto à idade. Objetivos: Verificar se existe correlação entre os níveis de maturidade moral e os graus de frieza emocional e de psicopatia, tomando por base uma população de jovens em medida sócio-educativa de internação na Fundação Casa. Adicionalmente, verificar a capacidade de previsão de reincidência da tradução brasileira do PCL-R. Esperou-se correlação inversa significante entre o escore da Psychopathy Checklist Revised (PCL-R) e reatividade autonômica e nível de julgamento moral. Quanto a estas duas últimas variáveis, estabelecemos como hipótese a independência entre ambas. Acreditamos ainda que infratores reincidentes iriam diferir de primários no grau de psicopatia. Métodos: Trinta jovens em medida sócio-educativa foram submetidos a avaliação: a) do grau de psicopatia com a escala PCL-R, separando fator 1 (ligado às relações interpessoais e frieza) e fator 2 (ligado a estilo de vida criminal, comportamentos antissociais); b) do nível de maturidade moral com o Socio-moral Objective Measure (SROM-SF); c) da frieza emocional, refletida na resposta psicofisiológica aferida pela atividade elétrica da pele (AEP) diante de estímulos visuais eliciadores de respostas afetivas provenientes do International Affective Picture System (IAPS). Resultados: Encontrou-se relação direta entre o fator 1 do PCL-R e a latência de resposta autonômica (teste de Spearman, p<0,005), e entre o fator 2 e o maior controle vagal (teste de Spearman, p<0,005). Não houve correlação entre a maturidade moral e o nível de psicopatia (teste de Spearman, p>0,05) ou frieza emocional (teste de Spearman, p>0,05). Os escores no PCL-R diferenciaram as populações de reincidentes e primários (teste t, p=0,0006). Conclusões: Conforme previsto, houve relação significativa entre o grau de psicopatia e a frieza emocional psicofisiologicamente aferida pela AEP. Além disso, a previsão de independência entre AEP e julgamento moral também se confirmou. Diferentemente da hipótese inicial, o grau de psicopatia não apresentou correlação com o nível de julgamento moral. Adicionalmente, verificou-se que a tradução brasileira do PCL-R demonstrou consistência ao prever a reincidência criminal na amostra estudada. / Background: Psychopathy has always been associated with immoral behavior and callousness. Although the latter characteristic is well established for psychopaths, there is no consensus regarding the level of moral discernment of these individuals: some theories suggest that they lack appropriate moral development, whilst others, that they lack only the willing to act properly. Regarding the relationship of these three variables - psychopathy, immorality and callousness - data is even less consistent. Thus, it is important to investigate incarcerated offenders, since studies with such population allow one to control for variables that may confound this inter-relationship, such as environmental influences, criminal experience, psychopathy, drug use and IQ. The investigation of juvenile offenders has additional advantages, as they form a homogeneous sample regarding age. Objectives: To verify the correlation between level of moral judgment, callousness and psychopathy in juvenile offenders incarcerated in Fundação Casa. We also wished to verify the risk prediction of the Brazilian version of the Psychopathy Checklist Revised (PCL-R). We expected to find inverse correlations between PCL-R scores and electrodermal activity and moral judgment level. Regarding the last two variables, we expected that they should be independent from each other. Finally, we expected that primary offenders would be different from recidivist ones. Methods: Thirty incarcerated young offenders were evaluated regarding: a) the degree of psychopathy according with scores on the scale PCL-R, split between factor 1 (which reflects interpersonal relationships and coldness) and factor 2 (reflecting criminal lifestyle, antisocial behaviors), b) level of moral judgment level as assessed with the Socio-moral Objective Measure-Short Form (SROM-SF), c) emotional callousness as measured through psychophysiological responses (electrodermal activity EDA) to visual stimuli from the International Affective Pictures System (IAPS). Results: We found a direct relationship between factor 1 of the PCL-R and latency of EDA response (Spearman test, p<0,005), and between factor 2 and greater vagal control (Spearman test, p<0,005). No significant relationship was found between moral maturity and level of psychopathy or callousness (Spearman test, p>0,05). PCL-R scores were able to distinguish primary from recidivist offenders (t test, p=0,0006). Conclusions: As predicted, there was a significant correlation between psychopathy levels and callousness as measured through EDA. Moreover, we also confirmed the prediction that there would be no relationship between EDA and moral judgment. However, different from what we expected, psychopathy level did not show any significant relationship with moral judgment. Additionally, it was found that the Brazilian version of the PCL-R demonstrated consistency in predicting recidivism in the sample studied.