Incidence of Psychopathy and Criminal Behavior

Psychopathology of Criminal Behavior -- Part II

Psychopathology of Criminal Behavior

Each question must be 300 words long.

Look carefully and honestly at some of your own age, gender, ethnic, cultural beliefs, and/or attitudes and discuss how such factors may impact your functioning in the work of responding to psychopathy.

I feel fortunate to have taken classes in college that have allowed me to meet and mix with people who are quite different from me in terms of age, ethnicity, cultural beliefs, and mindset. In addition, I participate in community activities that bring me in contact with people who come from different socio-economic and religious groups. My own family has experienced quite a few change-ups from what my parents' and my grandparents' generation experienced. Academically, I have studied about variables that contribute to the development of psychopathy in vulnerable people, and I believe I have a robust understanding of mental health issues in our society. All these factors taken together have contributed to my take on social, political, and economic influences.

Because I have been around the block a few times, I am aware of how social structures influence the care and support that is provided to people with mental health issues. I have developed, too, a realistic perspective about how therapeutic support can impact people with mental illness, and I appreciate the limitations of the tools that are currently available to psychologists, psychiatrists, and psychotherapists.

That said, my sympathies must be directed to the victims whose lives have been inexorably changed -- sometimes in unforgivable ways -- by the actions of people who have no social conscience or empathy. This is not to say that I don't hold some small thoughts that resemble pity for those people who, from no real choice of their own, become that which society most fears: those who will not live by rule of law. And there is a part of me that I will dedicate to the quixotic effort of getting in the way of those who would commit child abuse, whether it is emotional or physical. I can't help but wonder what greater sort of work there is than to prevent a small child from becoming the manifestation of his parents' fate -- to stop intergenerational abuse and neglect may be one of the most important tasks society describes.

6. For this discussion, research a case, which involves a violent physical or sexual crime. Summarize the case including how it may offer an example of something you found in your textbook about this topic. Imagine yourself working on this case in some way. Write about your own feelings about the case, the victim, the perpetrator, how you would react to them, what some of your own emotional issues might be in working with such a case, and how you might manage your own feelings or attitudes.

The shooting rampage at the Santa Barbara campus of the University of California by Elliott Rodger left six people and the shooter dead. The 23-year-old student left behind a video confession in which he justified his actions because of his hatred of women who did not respond to his overtures. According to people who knew him from early childhood, Rodger's behavior was always atypical but not so very different as to cause him to be confined. Family members knew that Rodger had disordered personality and he had been in and out of therapy for years. The interesting factor, particularly after taking this course, is that Rodger was able to pass in some situations, even though he was marginalized by his peers due largely to his social ineptness. It is tragic that Rodger did not receive more integrated care as knowledge of his disorder by the university and the local police could have kept him from putting his ideas into action.

A pressing question is why the police did not investigate more thoroughly and how the officers who did interview Rodger seemed to be taken in by his engaging manner at the time. The report indicated that he did not fit the criteria for an indefinite hold. Moreover, because Rodger had not been adjudicated by a court or had not checked into a mental facility voluntarily, there was nothing in his record that would prevent him from owning a gun in California -- not even a diagnosis of mental illness.

When Rodger attempted to push several women over a ledge they were sitting on, other males at the site intervened and turned the tables on him, injuring his ankle and prompting him to obtain treatment at a clinic. Police from the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department showed up to interview him at the clinic, determined that he was the instigator and not the victim. This could have been the catalyst for a more thorough official investigation, but it was not. The red flag here is that unless Rodger was drunk, his behavior was over the top. Clearly, something was amiss. Psychiatrists who have spoken out about the case suggest that Rodger may have been in a pre-psychotic state. Indeed, Rodger had been prescribed risperidone but had decided for himself -- after conducting his own research -- that the medication was not the right drug for him at all. Note that risperidone is an antipsychotic prescribed to treat schizophrenia -- including adolescent schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, the manic and mixed states of bipolar disorder, and irritability and rage that is often seen in people with autism or Asperger's syndrome. Rodger's therapist is said to have received his video just before the shooting, yet his blog posts and other social media posts clearly indicated the rage and disordered thinking that Rodger was experiencing.