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Criminology

Dark Triad, self-control and antisocial behavior: how do they interact? Forensic Science Club

By 4 Mins Read

Friends of the Forensic Science Club, this week we present the paper “Dark Triad Personalities, Self-Control, and antisocial/criminal outcomes in Youth” by Pechorro, P.; DeLisi, M.; Gonçalves, R. A.; Braga, T. and Maroco, J. (2021), in which authors carry out a study to examine whether self-control mediates the relations between the Dark Triad and some aspects such as crime or mental disorders.

Research in criminology and various areas of psychology, such as developmental psychopathology or personality, consistently points out to the existence of dark personality characteristics and comments that these are associated with various behavioral problems.

Within these traits would appear self-control, and also the famous Dark Triad composed of narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy.

Narcissism is characterized by being selfish, self-centered, having low empathy, and a high need to be admired by others.

When a person is Machiavellian, he is cunning, intriguing and unscrupulous in his behavior, in addition, he tends to exploit others for his own benefit.

Finally, psychopathy shares many features with antisocial personality disorder and describes a person with little empathy, very little emotional connection with others, impulsive, and a tendency to engage in reckless behavior, which sometimes leads them to commit crimes.

Although the Dark Triad and self-control are different ideas, they have common points. Both embody an individual who has very poor emotional regulation and behavior, is self-centered and pursues self-interest without taking others into account; in addition, that person would be a lying and manipulative person, prone to behavioral problems.

To date, there are several meta-analytic studies indicating that the Dark Triad and self-control are significantly related to a variety of antisocial outcomes and personality pathologies.

It is important to note that, although self-control and the Dark Triad are consistently associated, there is little research that has examined these two concepts together: only 5% of the studies found by Miller in his 2019 meta-analysis (cited in Article).

Larson carried out an analysis in 2015 in which it was seen that almost 60% of the participants had a low level of narcissism and a high level of self-control and, therefore, exhibited a normative functioning of their personality; however, 6.4% of the sample presented high narcissism and very low self-control.

This part of the sample had a psychiatric risk profile, more likely to abuse substances and experience violence. In addition, they were also more at risk of committing crimes such as intimate partner violence, cruelty to animals, theft, sexual assault…

The study thus showed that there is apparently a tendency to crime when the characteristics of narcissism (which is one of the characteristics of the Dark Triad) and low self-control are present.

In this study, the authors investigate whether self-control mediates the relationships between the Dark Triad and some behavioral disorders in a sample of Portuguese youth. In doing so, the Dark Triad’s links to self-control and criminality were examined.

The sample consisted of 567 young people between 14 and 18 years old. A series of tests and scales validated by the scientific community were used to examine self-control, delinquency, behavioral disorders, among others.

Analyzes showed that psychopathy had the greatest impact in terms of links to low self-control and juvenile delinquency, conduct disorder, and crime severity.

This is consistent with psychopathy’s reputation as one of the most important drivers of crime.

The findings also indicated that low self-control partially mediated the association between psychopathy and Machiavellianism.

On the other hand, narcissism had little or no direct significant effect on the results, and even had negative associations with low self-control. This is consistent with previous studies.

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Emotional deficits associated with Dark Triad. Forensic Science Club

By 4 Mins Read

Friends of the Forensic Science Club, this week we present the paper “The emotional déficits associated with the Dark Triad traits: Cognitive empathy, affective empathy and alexithymia” by Jonason, P. K. and Krause, L. (2013), in which authors carry out an investigation about what are the emotional deficits associated with the famous Dark Triad.

Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy have been repeatedly identified in the literature for years as aversive personality traits. Such is their negative power that they form the famous Dark Triad, which attracts us so much because of its mysterious and evil history. Possibly, because the Dark Triad has been associated multiple times with murderer’s personality.

Narcissism is characterized by superiority and dominance; machiavellianism, is related to manipulation and social charm; finally, psychopathy is related to insensitive social attitudes or impulsiveness.

For a few years now, attention has been paid to the idea that emotional deficiencies such as lack of empathy may be factors underlying these personality traits.

But not only the lack of empathy has been related to the Dark Triad: also the existence of alexithymia. That is, the inability to describe and understand one’s own emotions.

Although these two emotional deficits may be related, they have not been studied simultaneously until this investigation.

How could they relate? Authors propose the idea that the inability to identify or understand one’s own emotions (alexithymia) may be linked to the inability to identify or understand the feelings of others.

That is, the ability to put oneself in someone else’s shoes (empathy) can be supported by the ability to first be aware of one’s own feelings. And if one of these two does not work as it should be, then it may affect the other.

Evolutionary psychologists argue that traits and dispositions such as the Dark Triad or limited empathy could be positive for people’s adaptation as long as they offer them greater access to resources.

They could provide a competitive advantage by facilitating behaviors associated with goal achievement that require exploitation of others. How? For example, through contempt for one’s own feelings or for other’s feelings.

The same could also happen with alexithymia. This perspective suggests that it may be adaptive in the sense that it could facilitate the exploitative social strategy that is often linked to the Dark Triad.

To study the emotional deficits of the Dark Triad and to corroborate, or not, the previous literature, authors carried out a study with 320 volunteers.

They were asked to rate a few sentences based on whether or not they agreed with them, on a scale of 1 to 5. These sentences would be used to evaluate their narcissism, psychopathy, and machiavellianism.

Their levels of alexithymia and empathy were also evaluated with tests specially developed for this by specialists in the area.

The results were interesting, and in line with what the authors hypothesized from the beginning.

It appears that having low levels of empathy and a limited ability or motivation to communicate one’s emotions facilitates the antagonistic social strategy that appears in the Dark Triad traits.

In fact, spending too much time worried with or thinking about one’s own feelings, or other’s feelings, would be an obstacle for someone pursuing a typical Dark Triad life strategy. They would therefore be more focused on getting what they want from the external world than examining their internal world.

One of the limitations that the authors point out in this study is that there was a great imbalance in the number of men and women. They consider that future research should try to match the number and investigate in depth if there are differences between them.

They comment that, in conclusion, low empathy and high alexithymia can be evolutionarily advantageous for those who possess the Dark Triad traits and intend to live life following them (they are also refer to this as a “quick life strategy”).

Considering these traits as evolutionarily positive, a “depathologization” of these would be achieved, so that they would not require treatment, but possibly only a reconduction.

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Criminology

Intimate Partner Aggression Committed by Prison Inmates with Psychopathic Profile. Forensic Science Club

By 5 Mins Read

Friends of the Forensic Science Club, this week we present the paper “Intimate Partner Aggression Committed by Prison Inmates with Psychopathic Profile” by Gómez, J.; Ortega-Ruiz, R.; Clemente, M. and Casas, J. A. (2021), which explores whether exists a relation between having psychopathic personality traits and committing violence against intimate partners.

A recurrent topic for criminologists and psychologists is to study if a relation exists between certain crimes and specific personality traits or mental diseases.

 Does having one or another mental condition really make us prone to commit crimes?

 Even nowadays an important stigma that links mental diseases and committing crime exists, and although it has been shown that they’re not always related aspects, there are some personality traits that can be attached to delinquency or a propensity for it.

Authors focus on psychopathic personality traits and their possible relation with partner aggression. Plus, they pay attention to men because they use to be the perpetrators of these aggressions against their female partners.

But does an empirical background exist to justify the interest about this research?

In previous studies by other authors, they lead to conclusions such as that there were some variables related to aggressions by men to their female intimate partner, as drugs consumption, prior assault history, antisocial behavior, or psychopathy.

 Different papers in related literature explain that psychopathy mostly manifests in males, who are usually the aggressors in this kind of violence. Women with psychopathy exist and can also assault males, but this are rare cases and there are distinctions between them and men. For instance, women with psychopathy tend to be more verbally aggressive, whereas males use both verbal and physical aggression.

Besides, according to more studies cited in the paper, a high level of psychopathy predicts most of the types of aggression. And, on the other hand, men use to score higher on all the scales of the dark personality (which is closely related to psychopathy).

An interesting fact, also found in these related papers, is that there is a nexus between the dark personality and cyberbullying (as an example, behaviors like sending explicit unsolicited images, sexual violence facilitated by technology of the non-consensual dissemination of sexual conversations, etcetera). And if we consider that a link exists between dark personality and psychopathy, this is a fact we should bear in mind.

Therefore, it seems a logical and coherent question to wonder whether exists any nexus between males with psychopathic personality traits and intimate partner aggression.

 Researchers made a study with prison inmates in Cordoba, Spain. A total of 92 participated, all of them were serving time for aggression against their female partners (some of them had committed other crimes besides), including homicide.

They were subjected to a semi-structured interview, the Psychopathy Check-List by Hare (the revised Spanish version). It consists of 30 items that can be scored in a scale from 0 to 2. When a total score between 20 and 30 is obtained, the existence of psychopathic personality traits begins to be considered.

Results point in the same direction that main studies have: a nexus between psychopathic personality traits in men and intimate partner aggression exists.

Authors detected six specific factors in the interviews they made to these prison inmates: criminal record, impulsivity, need to stand out (they mention this could be referred to as narcissism), lack of empathy, manipulation of others and instability in couple and intimate relationships.

The first two factors are high predictors of psychopathy according to the Psychopathy Check-List by Hare and its evaluation procedure.

Furthermore, it is important to mention that the six factors mainly observed in the study also tend to be present in the dark personality, chiefly: the lack of empathy in all its types, the manipulation of others or the desire to be the center of attention/narcissism.

Namely, apparently would exist a series of factors of psychopathic personality in men that would be, indeed, related to intimate aggressions to their female partners according to this study.

Authors point out that some limitations exist in the paper, such as having worked only with males already prosecuted for this kind of crimes without a control sample. However, the fact that the males in the study were convicted of having attempted/committed aggression against their female partners, can be considered a positive value due to how difficult is to reach these individuals as a rule.

Moreover, authors leave open exploration fronts. For instance, they say that next investigations could focus on why these aggressions are committed. Plus, they suggest delving into the revenge concept, which could shed really useful and interest information.

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Criminology

The startle reflex as an indicator of psychopathic personality. Forensic Sciences Club

By 5 Mins Read

Friends of the Forensic Science Club, this week we present the paper “The startle reflex as an indicator of psychopathic personality from childhood to adulthood: a systematic review” by Oskarsson, S.; Patrick, C. J.; Siponen, R.; Bertoldi, B. M.; Evans, B. and Tuvblad, C. (2021), in which authors investigate, based on previous literature, whether there are enough empirical studies that show that the startle reflex is related to the presence of psychopathy.

Few topics are as interesting for those interested in understanding human behavior as psychopathy, its reason for being, and its risk and detection factors.

From psychology and criminology, it is suggested that psychopathy arises from an underlying emotional deficit, which would imply an altered reactivity to negative emotional stimuli.

As the study of psychopathy can be approached in different ways, authors explain that they consider it correct to use the triarchic model, which characterizes psychopathy based on three factors: boldness, meanness, and disinhibition. This model was formulated to reconcile different historical conceptualizations of psychopathy and to provide a framework in which to integrate the findings of different studies.

In this article, they use the triarchic model to interpret and synthesize the results of published studies. The goal is to provide an overview of the state of the literature and examine it.

But how has psychopathy been conceptualized in history? Traditionally, it has been understood to be a condition marked by antisocial deviance and tendencies toward severe criminality.

Another idea is the one that divides psychopathy into primary and secondary psychopathy. The primary would reflect a purer psychopathy, with a significant affective deficit and lack of awareness. The secondary would reflect an affective disturbance, instead of an affective deficit.

Although all of this has been extensively studied, most experts now suggest that psychopathic personality is more of a dimensional continuum rather than something categorical.

Returning to the idea of ​​the triarchic model, the one used in the article, we remember that he referred to psychopathy as a set of different degrees of boldness, meanness, and disinhibition.

Boldness is the ability to remain calm in threatening or stressful situations, it is the absence of anxiety. Individuals with a high level of fearlessness have a lack of defensive reflex preparation when exposed to threat cues.

Meanness leads to poor empathy, exploitation, and manipulation of others. Recent studies have shown negative associations between meanness and neural and behavioral indicators of empathic processing, such as face recognition or reactivity to fear.

Finally, disinhibition encompasses poor impulse control, impaired affect regulation, and a general propensity for externalizing problems.

At this point, where it seems that most studies are conducted on the personality of adults, authors wonder what happens when it comes to children.

The psychopathic personality is something that has its roots in the first years of life. Some studies indicate that young psychopaths show characteristics similar to adults.

In general, it is well established in literature that it is multidimensional in adults, so it can be assumed, seeing so many similarities, that it is also multidimensional in children.

One of the main goals of applying the triarchic model of psychopathy was to bridge the gap between the literature on psychopathy in adults and that on children, by providing a unique framework considering how the psychopathic personality develops from early ages.

But why do authors look for relationships between psychopathy and the startle reflex? This is an involuntary and primitive response to a threatening stimulus that is associated with a defensive mobilization, experienced as unpleasant or generating fear for a subject. It affects the whole body, but the first and fastest element is the twitching of the eye. Typically, this startle blink response is increased when the subject is presented with unpleasant stimuli compared to neutral stimuli and decreased when presented with pleasant stimuli.

Previous studies of psychopathic personality and physiological reactions have focused primarily on low heart rate and reduced skin conductance, however, these relate to arousal levels and are not very useful for measuring fear. So other measures that start from the defensive system, such as the startle reflex, are needed to better understand fear in psychopaths and to see if their brain has a lack of reactivity.

The authors carried out a search in different scientific databases, collecting data from articles published between 1994 and 2020, until obtaining a total of 40.

They obtained data such as psychopathic criminals showed less blink reflex while watching scenes of mutilations or assaults than other types of criminals.

This is consistent with the idea that psychopathic individuals have a specific empathy deficit that makes them physiologically unresponsive while observing others in distress.

However, there also appears to be a reduced blink reflex at threatening moments, suggesting that the deficit in defensive reactivity is not limited to observing others in danger.

In another study, people with higher levels of meanness (one of the elements of the triarchic model) were found to exhibit poor autonomic responses to violent images.

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If you want to know more about the criminal mind, criminal profiling, and forensic science, don’t miss our Certificate in Criminal Profiling, a 100% online program certified by Heritage University (USA), with special grants for the Forensic Science Club readers.

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Forensic Science Club