Written by Sara Lapsley and the Research Committee
The article by Reidy, Kearns, DeGue, Lilienfeld, Massetti, and Kiehl (2015) draws attention to the grave threat that violence poses to public safety across the globe, and notes the catastrophic burden in terms of human suffering, lost productivity, and medical and criminal justice costs. The authors suggest that individuals with psychopathic traits are responsible for a large portion of the violence that occurs in our society. They argue that targeting public health interventions at psychopathic individuals will be more effective than broad scale, “universal” public health programs that aim prevention strategies at everyone in the population, most of whom are at little risk of becoming violent.
Individual personality traits significantly contribute to risk for violence, and numerous studies have suggested that about 5% of individuals are responsible for the majority of crimes. Of particular concern are individuals with psychopathic traits, whose propensity for manipulation, deception and lack of empathy place them at high risk for violence. It is well documented that psychopathic individuals commit violence more often and engage in more severe violent acts as compared to non-psychopathic offenders.
Individuals with psychopathic traits are well known to the criminal justice system, but increasing evidence suggests that psychopathy exists on a spectrum, and many people with psychopathic traits live in community settings as well. The authors suggest that rehabilitating adults with psychopathic traits is difficult and resource-intensive.
However, there is hope. Evidence suggests that targeting intervention efforts at children and youth who display early indicators of psychopathic traits may be the best strategy to prevent future violence on a societal level. Children with Callous-Unemotional traits are at risk for psychopathy as adults, due to deficits in emotions and empathy that remain stable across the lifespan. These children are more likely to commit violence as adults and they “offend earlier with greater severity, chronicity, and diversity in type of violence and victim.”
A program offered at the Mendota Juvenile Treatment Centre (MJTC) has shown promising outcomes among adolescent offenders with psychopathic traits. The program takes into consideration the fact that individuals with psychopathic traits do not respond well to punishments. In other words, punitive measures do not result in the desired changes in behaviors. However, individuals with psychopathic traits are more likely to change their behavior in response to rewards. The MJTC program reinforces prosocial behaviors with tokens, which can be redeemed by participants for rewards, such as food items or magazines. Several studies have indicated that participation in the MJTC program reduced violent recidivism when they examined it four years later. They also found that callous-unemotional traits declined, participants’ institutional behaviors improved, and participants demonstrated increased compliance with treatment.
The authors suggest that public health approaches aimed at reducing violence should prioritize measuring psychopathic and callous-unemotional traits in the population, and institute “surveillance” strategies as they do for other diseases and conditions that may prove to be very costly to society. Further research needs to be done on the subset of psychopathic youth who do not go on to commit violence, as understanding protective factors may help us to prevent some youth from developing psychopathy.
In summary, the violence carried out by individuals with psychopathic traits is a significant burden to society. The authors argue that effective prevention strategies, such as the MJTC program, aimed at children and youth with callous-unemotional traits, will provide notable cost savings–in the millions of dollars–as these young people are diverted from a life of future violence.
Reference: Reidy, R.E., Kearns, M. C., DeGue, S., Lilienfeld, S. O., Massetti, G. & Kiehl, K. (2015). Why psychopathy matters: Implications for public health and violence prevention. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 24, 214-225.
