| dc.description | Psychopaths are highly egocentric, lack empathy and remorse, and have few inhibitions against lying or aggressing to serve their own internal or external needs (e.g., Porter & Woodworth, 2004). In the first study of its kind, this thesis concurrently examined the nature of psychopathic violence in the context of homicide (the manner in which the violent act was committed) and deceit in the context of an interview with the offenders themselves (the manner in which the violent act is described). The sample was comprised of 50 Canadian offenders currently incarcerated for homicide in a medium or maximum security institution. The nature of the homicides (primarily in terms of instrumentality/reactivity) was coded based on the official Criminal Profile Reports contained in their official files, and examined as a function of psychopathy. Further, the offenders' accounts of the incidents were coded using the same coding scheme to allow a comparison of the official reports versus the self-reports. Results indicated that psychopaths were significantly more likely to have committed primarily instrumental (premeditated, non-impulsive) homicides than non-psychopaths. However, this difference disappeared when coding the self-reported crime descriptions. Rather, although non-psychopaths also sometimes exaggerated the reactivity of their offence, psychopaths were significantly more likely to exaggerate the level of reactivity of their offence (such that their self-reported homicides were as reactive/impulsive as the offenses described by the non-psychopaths). Further evidence for self-exculpating behaviour on the part of psychopaths emerged in the finding that they were significantly more likely than their counterparts to omit some of the main details of their homicide offence. These findings have important implications for credibility assessment and treatment of violent offenders, and increase our understanding of the affective deficit and persistent deception characterizing psychopathy. Further, they provide a glimpse of how psychopaths may think about, and more importantly, describe their own violence long after its occurrence. | en_US |
