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Dr Shock MD PhD
Lombroso believed that 40% of criminals were ‘born criminals’ who could be distinguished by physical features including relatively long arms, prehensile feet with mobile big toes, low and narrow forehead, large ears, thick skull, large jaw, etc. The main objection to his hypotheses were his campaign on the basis of his theory for a preventive criminology: ‘society need not wait for the act itself, for physical and social stigmata define the potential criminal. He can be identified, watched and whisked away at the first manifestation of his irrevocable nature’.
As than as well as now the findings in the field of neuroscience of psychopathy does not legitimize the preventive incarceration of a ‘high-risk’ individual. Nor does it approve a therapeutically nihilistic approach to such an individual on the grounds that he is ‘beyond rehabilitation’.
What is psychopathy?
Psychopathy is a disorder, defined by Hare’s Psychopathy Checklist — Revised (PCL—R) and characterized in part by a diminished capacity for remorse and poor behavioral controls. Psychopathy is defined not only by antisocial behavior but also by emotional impairment such as the lack of guilt. The emotional impairment found in individuals with psychopathy interferes with socialization such that the individual does not learn to avoid antisocial behavior.
Psychopathy is not an official psychiatric DSM diagnosis. In the DSM it’s replaced by antisocial personality disorder. Only one third of those who are diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder meet criteria for psychopathy. Antisocial behavior shown by individuals with psychopathy is that it is mostly instrumental in nature, i.e. goal-directed towards achieving money, sexual opportunities or increased status. In British psychiatry psychopathy is still in use and studied. Most authors say that a diagnosis of psychopathy, unlike antisocial personality disorder, is informative regarding a patient’s future risk.
For a more extensive description of psychopathy have a look at article in Wikipedia
High level of psychopathy is associated with reduced …