Intimate Partner Violence Perpetration and Psychopathy: A Comprehensive Review

Abstract

Abstract. Intimate partner violence (IPV) is the physical, sexual, and psychological abuse of an intimate partner and is a widespread, international public health crisis. An important proximate risk factor for IPV perpetration is the presence of psychopathic traits but there has not been a systematic review of the research linking psychopathic traits to IPV perpetration. We identified 43 studies using 13,476 participants (9,024 men and 4,452 women) across 10 countries that met our search criteria that led to the following conclusions. First, psychopathy was associated with IPV perpetration with medium effect sizes, even after accounting for various distal and proximate risk factors. Second, the different dimensions of psychopathy did not consistently differ in their prediction of IPV perpetration. Third, within individuals with a history of IPV perpetration, psychopathy did not relate to the frequency or severity of partner violence. Fourth, a few studies have tested the associations among child abuse, psychopathy, and IPV, with one study reporting that the combination of child abuse and psychopathic traits led to especially high risk for IPV perpetration. Lastly, we conclude by making recommendations for how future research and interventions should consider psychopathy to reduce the societal burden of IPV.

Adult ADHD and romantic relationships: What we know and what we can do to help

“…Research is needed to disentangle whether these findings point to adults with ADHD being more susceptible to IPV when intoxicated, or whether they reflect risk owing to third variables underlying presence of ADHD and substance use problems (e.g., shared genetic risk). Psychopathic traits were not observed to moderate risk of IPV perpetration in either study, which was surprising in light of the robust associations between psychopathy and IPV perpetration in other studies (for review, see Robertson et al, 2020). This may indicate that psychopathic traits are more relevant in samples with higher levels of these traits (e.g., individuals with incarceration histories) than the community samples tested by Wymbs and colleagues.…”

The role of psychopathic features and developmental risk factors in trajectories of physical intimate partner violence.

“…For example, it has been proposed that there is a subtype of IPV perpetrators who exhibit high levels of antisocial and psychopathic traits, such as callousness, lack of remorse, and manipulation (Holtzworth-Munroe & Stuart, 1994; Tweed & Dutton, 1998), and engage in more frequent and severe IPV than other subtypes (Holtzworth-Munroe et al, 2003). Furthermore, in prospective research, psychopathic features have demonstrated a modest and robust prospective association with general violence and recidivism (Douglas et al, 2015) and predict a higher likelihood of IPV (Robertson et al, 2020) and poorer response to IPV treatment (Stanford et al, 2008).…”

Intimate Partner Aggression Committed by Prison Inmates with Psychopathic Profile

“…Our results match those of the main comprehensive reviews in this regard, which consider the results as typical of the relationship between psychopathy and IPA. Specifically, one study includes quite a few investigations that relate to the Factor 1 we detected [ 8 ], and, there are references to works that address the six factors, especially the sixth, the lack of a stable partner [ 6 ]. This topic of the partner is also reflected in one work among others [ 11 ].…”

“…On the one hand, psychopathy, which in recent research, has taken on a different nuance, depending on whether it refers to its primary nature (which has been investigated mainly by [ 1 , 2 , 3 ] or its secondary nature (which has been investigated under the initial label of the dark triad, subsequently the dark tetrad, and lately, the dark personality; [ 4 , 5 ]. On the other hand, intimate partner aggression (IPA), which is both a social problem and a public health problem, with some authors even specifying that this is a widespread international public health crisis: [ 6 ], as some studies [ 7 ] point out that aggressions occur in 60% to 90% of relationships. This work seeks to determine the explanatory variables of partner assault carried out by a sample of inmates convicted, among other crimes, for assaulting their intimate partners.…”

“…We highlight two reviews specifically relating psychopathy with IPA [ 6 , 11 ]. The former, selecting 41 investigations, determined that psychopathy is the most robust predictor of the perpetration of male-to-female IPA.…”