Comparison of murderers with recidivists and first time incarcerated offenders from U.S. prisons on psychopathy and identity as a criminal: An exploratory analysis

Abstract

Previous research conceptualized murderers as highly callous and self-gratifying individuals, offending as a result of psychopathic tendencies. The current exploration sought to verify whether murderers differ on psychopathy and criminal social identity from recidivistic and first time incarcerated offenders. Methods: The study compared an opportunistic sample of murderers (n = 94), recidivists (n = 266), and first time offenders (n = 118) on criminal social identity (3 factors: cognitive centrality, in-group affect, and in-group ties) and psychopathy (4 factors: callous affect, interpersonal manipulation, erratic lifestyle, antisocial behavior). Results: Recidivists scored significantly higher on cognitive centrality and in-group ties than murderers. Recidivists score significantly higher than first time incarcerated offenders or murderers on the erratic lifestyle and interpersonal manipulation factors of psychopathy. Additionally, recidivists scored significantly higher on antisocial behavior compared to first time offenders. All three groups of prisoners did not differ in terms of callous affect. Conclusion: Contrary to previous research and media portrayals of homicide perpetration being rooted in psychopathic tendencies such as callous affect, the present findings found no support for such a conceptualization of the crime. Moreover, unsurprisingly, it appears murderers have less developed criminal cognitions than other offending groups.

Are psychological measures and actuarial data equally effective in discriminating among the prison population? Analysis by crimes

“…Taking into account the components of the profile, and if we assume that having a partner has a status analogous to marriage in this population, the tendency of these individuals to have fewer criminal records can be explained. Within the various results provided by the literature, the remainder of our findings are consistent with those that suggest that murderers do not present more psychopathic characteristics and aggressiveness than other offenders [ 6 , 11 , 52 ]. Finally, although substance abuse is highly prevalent throughout the prison population [ 34 , 53 ], this problem does not appear to be one of the main characteristics of the killers.…”

A psychodynamic-behaviourist investigation of Russian sexual serial killer Andrei Chikatilo

“…Recently research has found evidence of the importance of social relationships and ties with criminal others in the perpetration of violence Sherretts & Willmott, 2016), however these social factors were significantly less important determinants of offence perpetration in homicide inmates, than other offender groups (Sherretts, Boduszek, Debowska & Willmott, 2017). For behaviourists a fundamental criticism of psychodynamic perspectives, including Neo-Freudian object relations theory, is the degree of emphasis attributed to childhood experiences and caregiver influences, which as a consequence negates seemingly significant adult experiences and environmental factors in the commission of behaviour (Hale, 1993;Castle & Hensley, 2002).…”

Deprivation of freedom in the course of serving prison sentence

“…Postojanje deprivacija u zatvorima doprinosi i viktimizaciji osuđenih. Činjenica je da se u zatvorima nalaze različite kategorije prestupnika, učinilaca lakših i težih krivičnih dela, neretko sa agresivnim ili psihopatskim osobinama, recidivisti i primarno zatvarani, sa različitim stepenom rizika recidivizma i rizika po sopstvenu i bezbednost drugih (Sherretts, Boduszek, Debowska & Willmott, 2017).…”