Homework: Characteristics of Psychopaths
In this homework, you considered the complexity of psychopathy. Despite uncertainty about how to define and classify psychopathy, there are firm characteristics that are associated with psychopaths. In your resources this week, you are introduced to the work of Robert Hare, one of the foremost psychopathy experts. Among other things, Hare created a way to measure criminal psychopathy. His tool for measurement, the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R), is a list of characteristics consistently associated with psychopaths that may be useful in identifying and evaluating characteristics of psychopaths. Widely used to classify psychopaths in the criminal justice system, the PCL-R is not a perfect instrument and is not the only instrument of measure for psychopathy. It is, however, a means to discover patterns of features associated with psychopaths.
For this Homework, review the psychopathic behaviors identified by Hare and Cleckley on page 174 of the course text, and consider the characteristics of psychopaths. Then, review the forensic report case study of D.V. in Chapter 5 of Forensic Mental Health Assessment: A Casebook, focusing on the criminal behavior and personality traits present in the case. Reflect on whether the personality traits indicate that the individual in the case study is a psychopath, as well as the degree to which psychopathy fully accounts for his behavior.
Homework (1 to 2 pages):
i. Briefly describe the criminal behavior in the case study.
ii. Explain whether or not the individual in the case study exhibits the characteristics of a psychopath, and why or why not.
iii. Based on the information in the case study and this week's other resources, explain at least oneconclusion you might draw about the nature of psychopathic behavior.
Format your homework according to the following formatting requirements:
i) The answer should be typed, using Times New Roman font (size 12), double spaced, with one-inch margins on all sides.
ii) The response also includes a cover page containing the title of the homework, the student's name, the course title, and the date. The cover page is not included in the required page length.
iii) Also include a reference page. The Citations and references must follow APA format. The reference page is not included in the required page length.