Psychopathy and juvenile homicide

The study of the phenomena of juvenile homicide has led some researchers to hypothesize the existence of two types of juvenile murderers. The personality and behavioural traits of the first type resemble the characteristics of the psychopath, whereas traits of the second type resemble the characteristics of the nonpsychopath. The current study was designed to assess the strength of the relationship between psychopathy and behavioural/criminological variables related to homicidal behaviour. Psychopathy was measured by the Hare Psychopathy Checklist - Revised (PCL-R), and homicidal variables involved the Cornell Coding Guide for Instrumental versus Hostile/Reactive Aggression and a variable list (e.g., demographics, psychiatric history, index offense details, institutional misbehaviour). Subjects were 41 male and 3 female juvenile murderers (mean age of 16.3 years) who received psychiatric assessments at Youth Forensic Psychiatric Service between 1986 and 1994. Results indicated that the prevalence of psychopathy in the current sample was similar to the prevalence of psychopathy in other studies using juvenile offenders. Psychopathy was not significantly associated with an instrumental style of aggression, suggesting that juvenile psychopaths do not use a planful, cold blooded approach to homicidal violence. Both psychopaths and nonpsychopaths predominantly victimized strangers or acquaintances which may be explained by the socialization styles of juveniles. Nonpsychopaths were more likely to be drunk prior to the index offense and use a weapon during the homicidal event, whereas psychopaths were more likely to kill their victims by brute physical force (i.e., beating and kicking). Although both psychopaths and nonpsychopaths experienced emotional/physiological arousal during the incident, nonpsychopaths were more likely to experience arousal in connection with intoxication whereas psychopaths experienced arousal in connection with a perceived threat from the victim. Psychopathy was associated with greater misbehaviour in juvenile institutions but not adult institutions, which may mean psychopathic young offenders are either intimidated by adult inmates or they ally themselves with powerful inmates in order to escape institutional repercussions for misbehaviour.Arts, Faculty ofPsychology, Department ofGraduat