Childhood Maltreatment and Adulthood Psychopathy in Light of File-Based Assessments Among Mental State Examinees

• NCJ Number: 163212
• Journal: Studies on Crime and Crime Prevention Volume: 5 Issue: 1 Dated: (1996) Pages: 91-104
• Author(s): H Koivisto; J Haapasalo
• Date Published: 1996
• Length: 14 pages
• Grant Number(s): SA 8482
• Sponsoring Agency: Finland Academy of Sciences
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: Sweden

Annotation

Childhood abuse and neglect experiences were examined in a sample of 52 Finnish offenders for whom reports on their mental state were available.

Abstract

The antisocial and criminal consequences of physical, psychological, and sexual abuse and neglect in childhood have aroused much interest in recent research. Cleckley's psychopathy is often related to antisocial and criminal behavior. Cleckley has listed 16 core characteristics of psychopathy, including superficial charm, good intelligence, absence of psychotic or neurotic symptoms, unreliability and lying, poorly motivated antisocial behavior, pathological egocentricity and inability to love, general affective inadequacy, and indifference in interpersonal relations. Subjects in this study were 44 male and 8 female offenders who had undergone an examination of their mental state in a Finnish state mental hospital during the years 1992-93. They were rated using the file-based Psychopathy Check List. Childhood experience was rated by using a special classification form and a maltreatment index. The inter-rater reliability of the Check List was satisfactory, but the alpha reliability remained at a low level. On the basis of the reports, 48 percent of the offenders had been physically abused, 52 percent psychologically abused, and 38.5 percent were neglected in childhood. Only two cases of sexual abuse were found. The Maltreatment Index correlated with the Check List ratings, indicating the maltreatment was more likely among psychopaths than among those scoring low in the Check List. Those who had experienced parental absence, death, neglect, or physical abuse scored higher in the Check List than those without such experience. A Family Problem Index, based on parental alcoholism, mental problems, and criminality correlated positively with the Maltreatment Index. Retrospective and file-based data collection as well as the composition of the sample were considered as limitations in the study. 3 tables and 53 references