Prompt: Mr. Jones is a 40-year-old Caucasian man who has been incarcerated for the last 23 years for a variety of violent offenses starting during his childhood. Pretend you are a forensic psychologist who is evaluating Mr. Jones prior to his upcoming parole board hearing. How might you go about evaluating to determine if Mr. Jones meets criteria for psychopathy? How might a diagnosis of psychopathy impact the outcome of his parole board hearing? Why? Please incorporate current research on the topic of psychopathy from peer-reviewed journal articles in support of your response.
Huss, M.T. (2014). Forensic Psychology: Research Practice and Clinical Applications (2nd Ed.) Hoboken, NJ: Wiley
Chapter 4: Psychopathy
Hare, R. (1999). Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us. New York, NY: Guilford Publications, Inc.
Pages:1–154 (Chapters 1–9)
Now take a closer look at the 20 domains measured by the PCL-R:
1. Glibness or superficial charm
This item describes someone who tries to make a favorable impression of others by engaging them with stories or interactions that place them in a favorable light. When they want to, psychopaths can be very charming and likable, but often this is only an act.
2. Grandiosity
Psychopaths often have an inflated view of themselves and their accomplishments. It is also very likely that they will go out of their way to make sure you are aware of these accomplishments, too.
3. Need for stimulation and proneness for boredom
This item describes the manner in which psychopaths live for excitement and adventure. They are easily bored and thus might have a difficult time following through on monotonous tasks.
4. Pathological lying
Psychopaths lie frequently and often will choose to lie even when there is nothing to really gain by lying.
5. Conning and manipulative
Using their well-developed lying skills, psychopaths are experts at deceiving and defrauding others for their own personal gain.
6. Lack of remorse or guilt
Despite what they might say, psychopaths are never truly sorry for their actions. They are unable to empathize with others or feel any guilt for their actions. This allows them to move from one con to the next without being bogged down with emotion.
7. Shallow affect
Although they might be able to put on a show of emotions, given their poverty of true emotion, their affect will be shallow and scripted.
8. Callousness or lack of empathy
Psychopaths are known to be heartless, indifferent, and either unable or unwilling to experience the emotions of others.
9. Parasitic lifestyle
Psychopaths will intentionally manipulate and exploit others for their own financial gain. Once one person’s financial resources are used up they will often move on to the next account to drain.
10. Poor behavioral controls
Psychopaths are known for sudden and rash displays of verbal and physical aggression that take very little provocation.
11. Promiscuous sexual behavior
Psychopaths are known to have many brief sexual encounters and are often indiscriminant in selecting their partners. They are often quite proud of their sexual conquests.
12. Early behavioral problems
Psychopaths display a lengthy history of behavioral problems that originates during early childhood. This might include cruelty to animals, truancy, substance abuse, fighting, firesetting and running away from home.
13. Lack of realistic or long-term goals
Although psychopaths might talk a good game, they often show an inability to execute long-term goals. They might speak about all of the great things they are going to accomplish, but won’t be able to provide any specific details about this will get done.
14. Impulsivity
Psychopaths struggle to resist temptation and as a result might come across as reckless, foolhardy, and unpredictable.
15. Irresponsibility
Psychopaths will repeatedly fail to honor commitments or obligations at work, school, family, or social situations. If they borrow money from you, good luck getting it back!
16. Failure to accept responsibility for their own actions
None of their failures or setbacks are their own fault. There will always be someone else to blame!
17. Many short-term marital relationships
If psychopaths do enter into a long-term relationship, it is likely only for their own financial or personal gain and it is likely that they will abruptly end the relationship as soon as they get bored or the incentives end.
18. Juvenile delinquency This item is similar to item #12, except this item pulls more for behavior that are violations of law.
19. Revocation of conditional release
There is evidence of revoked parole or probation due to a number of different reasons such as failure to appear, substance use, or other violations.
20. Criminal versatility
Unlike some criminals who develop a specific specialty, psychopaths are known for committing a wide variety of crimes. This likely has to do with their need for excitement and their poor impulse control.
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