Individuals who are high in psychopathic traits are known to cheat, lie, and manipulate others. One of the factors that may influence this behaviour is interpersonal judgment accuracy and tendency. There is some indication that increased psychopathic traits may be related to the ability to accurately judge the personality traits and emotions of others, and subsequently select individuals with characteristics that make them more vulnerable to manipulation and victimization. Alternatively, psychopathic traits may be related to a tendency to view others as possessing more vulnerable traits in general. The current study explored this topic by examining the relationship between psychopathic traits and the ability to accurately judge others’ personality traits and emotional states, as well the tendency to judge others as being more vulnerable. These relationships were examined in the overall sample as well by sex of judge and target. Male and female undergraduate students (N = 131) completed measures of psychopathic traits and narcissism. They were also asked to complete three tasks: 1) judge the personality traits and emotional states of individuals shown in brief video clips, 2) complete a memory task, select individuals who they would like to get to know better, and judge their vulnerability to being taken advantage of based on viewing photographs and brief written descriptions, and 3) judge brief displays of emotion. Results indicated that higher levels of psychopathic traits were related to enhanced judgment accuracy for certain traits and emotional states, but these relationships often varied depending on sex of judge and target. As well, psychopathic traits appeared to have a stronger relationship with judgment tendency than judgment accuracy, suggesting that individuals who are high in psychopathic traits tend to view others in a more negative light that may make them seem more vulnerable to manipulation. Judgment tendency also varied depending on sex of judge and target. Psychopathic traits showed stronger relationships with both judgment accuracy and tendency than narcissism. The results of the current study highlight the importance of continuing to study male and female psychopathy separately to gain an understanding of how psychopathic traits may manifest differently between the sexes.

Research into offending behaviour has, in recent years, turned to investigating the pathways that may lead a person to offend. One of the major developments in this area is the recognition that the presence of high levels of callous-unemotional traits may delineate a particular subgroup of children that are at particular risk of becoming career offenders. The present study examined the relationships between children’s levels of callous-unemotional traits and a number of parental variables. 125 children (at initial assessment) from low decile schools and their caregivers took part in this study. The results indicated that several aspects of parenting (frequency and consistency of discipline, monitoring/supervision, involvement with children, positive parenting, and parental empathy) showed associations with callous-unemotional traits. These results both supported existing literature in this area, and highlighted important areas that need to be considered when planning and implementing interventions for antisocial youth.

Using a strong invariance structural equation modeling approach, the current study explored the role of parental styles, along with age and IQ, on the expression of psychopathic personality facets in a large (N = 734) male sample of Hispanic and non-Hispanic offenders. Multiple group confirmatory factor analyses revealed evidence of strong invariance across ethnic groups for the psychopathy and parenting scales (CFI = .95; RMSEA .03). Person-centered analyses examining psychopathic versus non-psychopathic cases demonstrated that the former reported greater levels of dysfunctional parenting, particularly abuse. Structural equation modeling results highlighted differential relationships between the variables of interest as a function of race/ethnicity.

This person-centered analytic approach identifies homogeneous offender subtypes in terms of psychopathic trait profiles and facilitates examination of correlates that may be linked with specific subtypes. Prosody is an external correlate that contains a wealth of information relevant to disruptions in cognition and affect and may offer novel insight into different psychopathic subtypes. The current study examined prosodic output in a male offender sample (n = 469) within the context of the clinical Psychopathy Checklist – Revised interview (PCL-R; Hare, 2003). Audio recorded speech samples were drawn from offender responses to affectively-charged PCL-R interview questions representing differing levels of valence and arousal. Generally consistent with previous literature, LPA results indicated that a four-class solution yielded the best model fit for the allocation of individual cases to subtypes with high overall classification accuracy (85%). Results of external validation analyses using mixed effects multivariate analysis of variance revealed significant two- and three-way interactions (psychopathy subtype x valence x arousal) for both speech production and variability indices that helped differentiate the subtypes. Overall, the current study suggests that meaningful differences exist in terms of prosodic output within psychopathic offender subtypes, which may be related to dysfunction in underlying affective processes. Implications of these findings and future directions for research are discussed.

Although evidence suggests that both men and women perpetrate sexual coercion, the majority of work has traditionally focused on men as perpetrators and women as victims. Psy-chological factors, including psychopathic traits and sexual motivations, have been proposed to characterize sexually coercive men. However, the sparse existing research using female samples suggests that these models may not adequately characterize female sexual coercers. In particular, although there is evidence that sexual motivations may mediate the relationship between psycho-pathic traits and coercion perpetration, there is a dearth of information regarding gender as a po-tential moderator of these mediating paths. To improve our understanding of these relationships, the current study examines a moderated mediation model in which sexual motivations mediate the relationship between psychopathic traits and sexual coercion, with gender as a potential mod-erator of these mediation effects. To achieve this goal, 868 undergraduate participants were re-cruited to take part in an online survey. Study aims were accomplished using a combination of regression and path analysis. Results implicated Factor 2 traits as particularly important to male-perpetrated but not female-perpetrated coercion, and that this relationship was partially mediated by sexual power motives. In sum, our results support a conceptual model of male perpetration where men who are high in Factor 2 traits (impulsivity and behavioral dyscontrol) may engage in sexual coercion in an attempt to feel powerful. These results and their implications are discussed in the context of men and women’s changing social roles, and how individual psychopathology may dovetail with social beliefs to generate sexually coercive behavior.

In order to understand the longitudinal relationships between adolescent psychopathy, bullying perpetration, sexual harassment, and homophobic taunting, data were analyzed from surveys of 544 Canadian teenagers from grades 9 to 12 who took part in the ongoing McMaster Teen Study. The researchers hypothesized a pathway in which psychopathy and bullying were interrelated predictors of sexual harassment and homophobic taunting. Path analysis revealed that the model demonstrated excellent fit and had a significant effect of gender. Psychopathy and bullying perpetration were stable, covarying constructs and psychopathy predicted bullying throughout adolescence. Bullying was more strongly predictive of and concurrently related to homophobic taunting for boys than girls, and homophobic taunting was linked to sexual harassment perpetration for boys, but not girls. Psychopathy predicted homophobic taunting and sexual harassment equally across sexes. Limitations and future directions are discussed and suggestions for counselling adolescents who are high on bullying and psychopathic traits are provided.

Risk assessments for offenders often combine past records with current clinical findings from observations, interviews, and test data. Conclusions based on these risk assessments are highly consequential, sometimes resulting in increased criminal sentences or prolonged hospitalization. Offenders are therefore motivated to intentionally minimize their risk scores. Intentional minimization is especially likely to occur in offenders with high psychopathic traits because goal-directed deception is reflected in many of the core traits of the disorder, such as manipulativeness, glibness, and superficial charm. However, this connection appears to be based on the conceptual understanding of psychopathy, and it has rarely been examined empirically for either frequency or success. The current study examined the connection between psychopathic traits and the intentional minimization of risk factors using a sentenced jail sample. In general, offenders were able to effectively minimize risk on the HCR-20 and SAQ, while the PICTS, as a measure of cognitive styles, was more resistant to such minimization. Psychopathic traits, especially high interpersonal facet scores, led to greater minimization using a repeated measure, simulation design. Important differences in the willingness and ability to use deception were found based on (a) the content of subscales, and (b) the mode of administration (i.e., interview vs. self-report). The important implications of this research are discussed for risk assessment procedures regarding likely areas of deception and its detection. It also informs the growing literature on the connection between psychopathic traits and deception.

Aggression has traditionally been subdivided into two correlated, but distinct, subtypes: reactive and instrumental. Reactive aggression (RA) is considered impulsive, emotionally driven behavior, whereas instrumental aggression (IA) is planned and incentive-motivated. This thesis examines the relationships between RA, IA, psychopathy, and antisocial personality disorder (APD) symptoms in male and female offenders recruited from a jail in north Texas. Contrary to predictions, psychopathic traits did not account for more variance in aggression than did APD symptoms. Impulsivity demonstrated slight incremental validity over psychopathy for RA, and to a lesser degree, IA. the continued utility of the reactive-instrumental distinction and implications for professional practice in relation to the current study are examined. Study limitations and directions for future research are discussed.

Psychopathy has long been lauded as a premier predictor of negative behavioral outcomes because of its demonstrated associations with violence, antisocial conduct, and institutional maladjustment. Traditional conceptualizations of psychopathy highlight the relatively equal importance placed on personality features (i.e., a grandiose, deceitful interpersonal style and deficits in affective experience) and behavioral elements (i.e., an impulsive and irresponsible lifestyle marked by social deviance) of the syndrome. However, little research to date has investigated psychopathy dimensions in female samples, particularly as they relate to maladaptive behaviors beyond forensic settings. The current study comprehensively examined personality (i.e., Axis II Cluster B traits and alexithymia) and behavioral (i.e., suicide-related behavior and aggression) expressions of psychopathy in a sample of female inpatients recruited from trauma and dual-diagnosis units at a psychiatric hospital in Dallas, Texas. Contrary to expectations, the essential components of psychopathy in female psychiatric patients emphasized APD and NPD traits over features of HPD and BPD, which were relatively similar to elements traditionally highlighted in male psychopathy. On this point, two latent dimensions comprehensively addressed female psychopathy in the current sample: impulsive antisociality and narcissistic and histrionic interpersonal style. Interestingly, psychopathy (M r = .01) and Cluster B traits (M r = .05) were virtually unrelated to suicide-related behavior in female patients with trauma and substance use histories, but APD and BPD traits were more discerning for impulsive and premeditated aggression than variants of psychopathy. Aggression's relationship to BPD traits is at least partially mediated by alexithymia. These results are discussed in terms of improving evaluation and intervention efforts aimed at identifying and managing psychopathic females beyond forensic settings.

Evidence suggests that psychopaths’ notoriously immoral behavior is due to affective rather than rational deficits. This evidence could be taken to show that, contrary to moral rationalism, moral norms are not norms of reason. Rationalists could reply either that psychopaths’ behavior is in fact primarily due to rational deficits or that affects are involved in responding to rational norms. Drawing on the work of Antonio Damasio and colleagues, I argue the latter is the better defense of moral rationalism.