The Psychopath

There is no actual diagnosis of psychopathy in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV), but there is one for an antisocial personality disorder (ASP). All psychopaths are antisocial personalities, but not all antisocial personalities are psychopaths. Experts estimate that 3% of men and 1% of women have ASP, while only 1% of the population is truly psychopathic. Antisocial personalities can be summed up by their lack of regard for the moral and/or legal standards of society, as well as an inability to follow rules or have meaningful relationships with others. Psychopaths up the ante significantly.

Law enforcement officers interact with psychopaths routinely. Think you can spot one? Think again. They are inevitably more intelligent than your average bad guy. Frequently nothing noteworthy stands out about them, until they are stopped for a crime or a field interview. Even then, psychopaths are hard to identify. The less intelligent are already incarcerated or on parole/probation. The most intelligent have not been caught, and in reality may never be apprehended (for example, the Zodiac Killer). In general, psychopaths aren't the product of broken homes or the casualties of a materialistic society. There is no one to blame for their behaviors except themselves. Their motivation is power, gratification, personal gain, and survival. Their mindset is manipulation, deception, and evil. Their level of malice is high to very high, even off the charts when they are held accountable. This is what makes the psychopath so dangerous for law enforcement officers.

Common psychopathological traits include the following: glib and superficial charm; grandiose sense of self-worth; need for stimulation; pathological lying; cunning and manipulativeness; lack of remorse or guilt; shallow affect; callousness and lack of empathy; parasitic lifestyle; poor behavioral controls; promiscuous sexual behavior; early behavior problems; lack of realistic, long-term goals; impulsivity; irresponsibility; failure to accept responsibility for own actions; many short-term marital relationships; juvenile delinquency; revocation of conditional release; and criminal versatility. Psychopaths are the worse kinds of narcissists. They not only disregard society and social cues, they carry this disdain for rules to the extreme, calculating and scheming ruthlessly. They are notoriously callous career criminals. They enjoy what they do. The bottom line is that psychopaths are deliberately, energetically, joyfully evil.

Psychopathy involves poor emotional intelligence and the genuine lack of conscience. The psychopath rarely remains attached to anyone or anything. Their lifestyle is consistently predatory; they feel little or no regret or remorse for their behaviors. Psychopaths do need relationships; however, they view people as barriers to their fundamental needs. Relationships are easily and frequently eliminated. Others are viewed in terms of how they can be used to increase the psychopath's self-esteem or simply for stimulation. Most fundamentally, psychopaths value others in terms of their material value. They are stalkers, rapists, perpetrators of domestic violence, deviant sexual crimes, and they are the serial killers. There are a high number of corporate psychopaths. Psychopaths are unable (or unwilling) to control their impulses or to delay gratification. They use rage to control and manipulate others into submission. Many of them are sadistic; taking true pleasure in inflicting physical, emotional and financial harm to their victims. Not all psychopaths are law-breakers. However, all psychopaths do engage in antisocial acts such as lying, manipulation, aggression, and cruelty.

There are several unique subtypes of psychopaths. Primary psychopaths can frequently control antisocial impulses to suit their own purposes. However, they are simply incapable of experiencing genuine emotions. They simply do not respond to punishment or apprehension. The second subtype is the charismatic psychopath. These individuals are charming, attractive, and irresistible pathological liars. This type of psychopath is the fast-talker, the manipulator and the persuader. Basically, they can talk people out of almost everything, including their own lives (religious cult leaders frequently fall in this category). The next, and most dangerous subtype, is the distempered psychopath. They are most likely to be aggressive and violent, frequently flying into rages. Distempered psychopaths are predominantly males with strong sexual drives and obsessions (often deviant), cravings for excitement, and addictions. An example of this subtype is the Boston Strangler.

The facts and statistics related to psychopathy are disturbing at best. Psychopaths are seven times more likely than other criminals to commit stranger murders, and twice as likely to commit other stranger crimes. Their one year general crime recidivism rate is three times more likely than other criminals; it is four times more likely for violent crimes. It is estimated that between 15-25% of all prisoners are psychopaths (remember, only 1% of the population have psychopathological characteristics). Psychopathy characteristics are seen in childhood. The age of onset for children with high psychopathy is 12.1 years for violent crimes, and 9.3 for nonviolent crimes. The good news is that about half of all psychopaths reduce criminal activity by the age of 35-40.

Law Enforcement's Interaction with the Psychopath

FBI studies indicate that over 80% of officers killed in the line of duty were killed by individuals with personality disorders. While 56% percent of these killers had an antisocial personality disorder; 44% had psychopathology characteristics. 23% were killed by individuals with a dependent personality disorder.

Remember, you cannot spot a psychopath. When you encounter one, they will at first seem overly cooperative and friendly towards you. Meanwhile, they are sizing you up, noting every detail; your physical, intellectual and moral capabilities, while trying to lull you into a false sense of security. They may invade your personal space just to see how you react.

Psychopaths are evasive when you make contact. They will attempt to control the conversation. Once they have a sense on what kind of person you are, they will attempt to manipulate you; they are highly skilled in this regard. When confronted they will deny any involvement in illegal activities, pointing the finger towards someone else. If that doesn't work, Plan B is to rationalize the crime and offer their own interpretations of the laws that you believe were violated. Although they are well versed in the laws of society, they truly don't believe these laws apply to them. They have absolutely no remorse for the crimes they have committed against others, and will only express regret as a way to manipulate an officer in hopes that the justice system will go easier on them. Fundamentally, psychopaths represent the greatest danger to officer safety. If an arrest is imminent, and the psychopath believes he can get away with violence, he will resort to it. This can be an instantaneous reaction, often catching the law enforcement officer off guard.

Psychopaths are indifferent to the truth, they are pathologic liars. At best, as an officer, you will get half truths in an attempt to confuse and manipulate you into casting doubt on their involvement. They will evade your questions, claim forgetfulness, and provide you with vague and inconsistent answers about their past. Even when cornered, the psychopath will offer excuses and apologies, and then simply return to his pathologic lying.

Treatment

There is no cure for psychopathology, no medications. Therapy is inevitably counterproductive. Psychopaths forced into counseling frequently get worse as they learn how to use psychology to manipulate the world and the people around them even more. Traditional therapy may in fact cause the psychopath to offend more often, with more malice, and sooner than the psychopath who does not receive treatment. For the most heinous psychopaths, society's treatment of choice is either a life sentence or the death penalty, as was the case for some of the most prolific cases: John Wayne Gacy, Charles Manson, Ted Bundy, Edmund Kemper, Richard Ramirez, Dr. Harold Shipman, and Aileen Wuornos.