NCJ Number
227322
Journal
Criminal Justice and Behavior Volume: 36 Issue: 6 Dated: June 2009 Pages: 635-648
Date Published
June 2009
Length
14 pages
Annotation
Forty-seven male students attending a Canadian university were participants in a study designed to determine whether individuals who scored higher on psychopathic traits would be more adept at judging a person's vulnerability to a mugging after viewing short clips of targets walking.
Abstract
The results support the hypothesis that psychopathic traits increase a person's ability to select vulnerable mugging victims from observing body language displayed in walking. There was a robust, positive correlation between psychopathy scores and accuracy in determining victim and nonvictim target status. Those scoring higher on psychopathic traits were better able to determine who would be an easy target, but they were not apparently able to analyze their judgments in terms of the specific cues they identified as indicating vulnerability. The study involved putting oneself in the role of a mugger and rating the targets on vulnerability to victimization. Two independent raters coded each of the 12 targets in the video clips according to stride length, synchronicity, energy, and knee and head movements. Interobserver agreement for all coded body movement cues were reasonably high. The ratings were then totaled to create a perceived vulnerability score for each target. The psychopathic traits of participants were assessed with the Self-Report Psychopathy Scale: Version III, which contains subscales that measure interpersonal manipulation, callous affect, erratic lifestyle, and antisocial behavior. Participants rated each target's vulnerability on a 10-point rating scale. 1 table and 65 references