Types of Offense among the Cleckley Psychopaths

Abstract

The Cleckley psychopath is superficially charming and convincing in his behavior but also unreliable and callous. These personality characteristics imply that he/she may be prone to deceive and manipulate others. In the area of criminality, this may mean apropensity to fraud-like offenses. The present paper tested the argument by comparing types of offense committed by psychopaths and nonpsychopaths. The Psychopathy Checklist was used for psychopathy assessments. In a sample of 92 male offenders, the percentage of the Cleckley psychopaths convicted for fraud-like offenses was higher than among the other offenders. The results were discussed with respect to the problem of circular conclusions. It was argued that a person-oriented approach could be used to examine the relationships between psychopathy and criminal behavior.

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