Indicators of a Psychopat

There are a couple ways to spot a psychopath or sociopath living among you. It’s not clear cut, as there are a wide range and different degrees of psychopaths. You can have highly functioning psychopaths that are in full control and don’t really show any signs of their disturbed minds or you could have a complete loose cannon. The Hare Psychopathy Checklist is often looked at to find psychopaths. If a person scores over 30, they can be considered a psychopath. Traits in the checklist include things like irresponsibility, delusions of grandeur, superficial charm, lying, thrill seeking, shallowness, lack of empathy, promiscuity, lack of goals, and many others. On top of different traits, psychopaths are prone to different activities and behaviors.

One of the most important indicators of a psychopath is a tendency towards criminality. While conducting the Hare Psychopathy test on prisoner samples from inside North America, that 20.5%, and 17.5% outside North America, had earned a score of 30 or higher, which qualifies a person for the diagnosis of psychopathy. (15) Other studies have shown that higher psychopathy scores share a link with detention in higher security, issues with discipline, substance abuse and repeated imprisonment. (16).

Psychopaths have also been found to be prone to violence. The FBI have reported that psychopathic behavior has quite a bit in common with different traits of serial killers. Traits like impulsivity, thrill seeking, predator behavior, controlling, and lack of guilt or empathy. (19) All of which can very clearly lead to violent behavior. Other research may suggest that instrumental violence, as opposed to reactive violence, is far more likely to be committed by a psychopath than a non-psychopath. ...

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...nmental factors individualizes the different building block traits of a psychopath. (49)

The environmental theory makes links between bad relationships with parents, convicted parents, physical neglect, poor families, broken homes, harsh discipline, delinquent siblings, young or depressed mother and poor supervision. The theory makes many links with psychopathy setting in at a young age. (15) The idea is that the child is not raised under circumstances that allow for full normal development of the brain, and it makes way for the mind of a psychopath. Head injuries also have a link with both violent behavior and psychopathic behavior. Brain injury could lead to an inability to make normal moral and social decisions. Children with early damage may never learn moral or social reasoning and will develop as psychopaths with high antisocial and aggressive behavior. (44)