The path to psychopathy on serious juvenile delinquency

The path to psychopathy on serious juvenile delinquency: the harmful aftermath of
childhood trauma

Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction..............................................................................................................4
Introduction............................................................................................................................4
Issue and Background.............................................................................................................4
Issue Statement.......................................................................................................................5
Research Purpose and Research Questions............................................................................5
Research Objectives...............................................................................................................6
Significance of Research........................................................................................................6
Limitations and Assumptions.................................................................................................7
Chapter 2: Literature Review.....................................................................................................7
Introduction............................................................................................................................7
Description of Literature Search............................................................................................8
Psychopathy as a Consequence of Childhood Trauma...........................................................8
Causes of Psychopathy Issue..................................................................................................9
Difference of Comorbid Disorder and Psychopathy............................................................11
Prognosis or Anti-social Life Pattern...................................................................................13
Impact of Childhood Trauma on Psychological Factors......................................................14
Kohler’s Theory of Moral Development..............................................................................15
Behavioural Psychological Theory.......................................................................................17
Humanistic Theory...............................................................................................................18
Review of Literature.............................................................................................................19
Chapter 3: Research Methodology...........................................................................................21
Introduction..........................................................................................................................21
Case Studies..........................................................................................................................21
Case study 1: Ed Gein.......................................................................................................21
Applied Theory.................................................................................................................21
Analysis............................................................................................................................22
Case Study 2: Charles Manson.........................................................................................23
Applied Theory.................................................................................................................23
Analysis............................................................................................................................24
Case Study 3: Ted Bundy.................................................................................................25
Applied Theory.................................................................................................................25
Analysis............................................................................................................................26
Case Study 4: Richard Ramirez........................................................................................27
Applied Theory.................................................................................................................27

Analysis............................................................................................................................28
Case Study 5: Albert De Salvo.........................................................................................28
Applied Theory.................................................................................................................29
Analysis............................................................................................................................29
Conclusion............................................................................................................................30
Chapter 4: Findings..................................................................................................................30
Introduction..........................................................................................................................30
Findings................................................................................................................................30
Main Theories and arguments (for and against)...................................................................32
Conclusion............................................................................................................................33
Chapter 5: Discussion and Recommendations.........................................................................33
Introduction..........................................................................................................................33
Finding Summary.................................................................................................................34
Conclusions..........................................................................................................................34
Discussion.............................................................................................................................35
Recommendations................................................................................................................36
Future Scope.........................................................................................................................37
Final Conclusion...................................................................................................................37
References................................................................................................................................38

Chapter 1: Introduction
Introduction
Personality disorder exists as a consequence of some absurd childhood experience. Childhood
is the stage of life in which the basic development of the child’s brain takes place. The
experiences of the child during his childhood creates an imaginary world for him on the basis
of which he learns to judge, decide and acknowledge people. The reactions and the actions of
the child is dependent on the scenario which he witnesses during his childhood. The bad
experiences or some unethical or painful incident that the child witnesses, carries strong
impact and generally it leaves a mark on his mind for lifetime. This brings in the personality
disorder existence and it is the reason for some weird behaviour and reactions of the children.
The trauma or pain that the child goes through during his childhood, creates a scenario or an
image in his mind, on the basis of which he makes all his life decisions and reacts as per it.
Psychopathy is one of the terms which describes the complex disorder of personality
conceptualised by a constellation of behavioural attributes and personality traits (Guillen et
al. 2019). The traits are centred on one of the mentioned three dimensions, first is an
impulsive or anti-social lifestyle, second is callous, arrogant, and deceitful interpersonal
behaviour and lastly, deficient affective responses. It has been observed that these traits has
strong associations with criminality and recidivism. It is also known that those with high
levels of psychopathy are likely to relate in both reactive and premeditated aggression and to
demonstrate little remorse for their actions. The research carries an intention of
acknowledging the various cases and incidents which has taken place in United States, and
the actions which has been taken in its response. The criminal law and the impact of those
laws on the adults along with the impact of childhood trauma on the personality framework is
to be explored. The research investigates the psychopathy concern on serious juvenile
delinquencies which has been the consequence of childhood trauma. The research is based on
the literature review acknowledgement and the information gathered through various sources.
The findings and the results of the research would provide with some effective information
on the perspective of the criminal justice system on the concerned issue. It would also include
the course of action required to deal with the serious psychopathic personality of young
people.
Issue and Background
The issue of increasing psychopathy among children in United States has been of great
concern and this brings in the requirement of acknowledging the issue through investigating

the theories behind the mentioned concern. The perspective of criminal justice system on the
issue and the actions which has been taken as a solution to it, is investigated through
acknowledging various case studies that has taken place in the country (Latzman, Patrick, and
Lilienfeld, 2019). The childhood trauma which has been impacting the basic mind set of
children is to be investigated and the way it could be checked and reduced would also be
provided through the research.
The issue of psychopathy and juvenile delinquency, could be acknowledge with conduct
problems (CP), which are commonly identified as either oppositional defiant disorder (ODD),
or conduct disorder (CD) has been observed to be comprised of 5-10% of youngsters lying in
the age group of 8-16 years (Saunders et al. 2019). In the pre-school populations of children
CP has been prevalent ranging from 7-25%. Through various studies and surveys it has been
concluded that among youngsters, the prevalence of psychopathy has been 21.5% while for
the adult psychopathy the percentage ranges from 15-30% (Konicar et al. 2017). In a
population of adolescents who are involved in criminal psychiatric services, through the use
of psychopathy checklist-Youth Version (PCL-YV), the cut off score has been greater than
30 psychopathy (Anestis et al. 2017). It has been acknowledged by Forth and Burke that
young people in the society care 3.5%, on probation the rate is 12%, and 28.3% in those
incarcerated. Psychopathy has been a great concern for the United States and the juvenile
delinquencies needs to be checked on the priority basis through working on the childhood
trauma (Kelley et al. 2019). The childhood is to be concentrated on and the kind of lifestyle
and family to which the children belong, needs to be worked on for reducing the problem of
psychopathy and enhancing the criminal justice system for juveniles.
Issue Statement
The issue statement for the research is that “the criminal justice system on the particular issue
of psychopathy and their course of action to deal with the serious psychopathic personality of
young people.” The problem statement needs to be worked on through investigating the
childhood trauma or background and taking effective steps for the same.
Research Purpose and Research Questions
Research Purpose
The relationship between childhood traumatic experience of abuse or neglect and the
development of psychopathic personality that form criminal behaviours among the youngster
has been widely demonstrated. The general aim of this study is to investigate the theory of

this issue, this research will include some case studies as evidence to support the title. We
will cover the perspective of the criminal justice system on this particular issue and their
course of action to deal with the serious psychopathic personality of young people. This study
will uncover the ethnic groups in the Americas.
Research Question
The research question is “Does childhood trauma, has laid the path to psychopathy on serious
juvenile delinquencies? What has been the criminal justice system for such delinquencies,
how effective it has been?”
Research Objectives
The research questions could be met through investigating the research objectives a stated
below
 To acknowledge the issue of psychopathy in United States and its divergence.
 To bring out the relation between the childhood trauma and psychopathy occurrence
 To investigate the criminal justice system and the juvenile delinquencies of
psychopathy survivors experienced childhood trauma
 To provide recommendations on the actions and solutions for reducing psychopathy
issue.
Significance of Research
The increasing number of survivors of psychopathy in the United States, and the impact it has
on the lifestyle and the surroundings has been demanding some specific and effective
solution. The research would help in acknowledging the issue through various case studies
and practices which has been executed in the country. The childhood trauma and the impact
of it on the mind-set of the children, would help in understanding the actual reason for the
existence of psychopathy. The juvenile delinquencies need to be acknowledged through the
criminal justice system of the country and the impact it has on other people (Hampstead et al.
2017). The research carries a high significance as it acknowledges the serious issue of
childhood trauma and the long-term impact of it that is psychopathy. Psychopathy leads to
juvenile delinquencies and this has been impacting the lifestyle of the people. The research
carries a wide scope of being utilised by the country for gaining some effective and accurate
data on the number of cases that exists in the country. The case studies would provide the
research with some authentic and practical implications of psychopathy (Chan, 2019). The
practices of the authorities for dealing with such cases and its analysis would help in

understanding the aspect or view of the country on how it deals with such serious issues. The
research findings would also provide with a future scope or position of the youngsters and the
extent to which the concerned issue could be reduced. The aspect of criminal justice system
has been considered with a view to analyse the justice system of the country and the extent to
which the delinquencies impacts the criminal justice system (Lui et al. 2019). As
delinquencies could lead crimes in long term, effective solution at the initial stage could
reduce the increasing crime in the country. Through the research findings, the future
children’s would be saved from psychopathy as well as the current crimes would be reduced
too.
Limitations and Assumptions
Limitations
The research carries a limitation of acknowledging only the American issue of psychopathy,
whereas the issue has been spreading to the world as a whole. The research has included the
case studies of America and this has kept it confined to a specific area but the issue of
juvenile delinquency is not confined to any specific area. The problem has been increasing
around the globe and thus, the research could have included a global investigation rather than
a specific country. The global aspect of criminal justice system could have helped in
providing with some global solution and thus, the authenticity and applicability rate of the
research would have increased.
Assumptions
The research carries certain assumptions as acknowledging and providing solutions for each
and every issue could not be met. The assumptions of the research are as follows:
a. The foremost assumption is that the psychopathy issue is acknowledged on the basis
of childhood trauma.
b. The second assumption is that only American case studies is explored for keeping the
solution confined to the country.
c. The third assumption is that the criminal justice system of America is considered.
d. The fourth assumption is that the solutions or findings of the research would be
applicable as remedies for the psychopathy problem.

Chapter 2: Literature Review
Introduction
The chapter includes the theoretical framework of the research. It states up the concepts and
the theories that plays a significant role in the concerned research. The research investigates
the psychopathy problem because of childhood trauma, this would be represented through
various aspects and the theories which supports the psychopathy problem or acts as a solution
would be stated. The description for the research literature, its framework and reviewing the
literature would be stated accurately. The chapter represents the basic concepts and
theoretical views of the issue investigated in the research.
Description of Literature Search
Psychopathy as a Consequence of Childhood Trauma
According to Vaurio et al. (2018), childhood is a significant stage of life and it is the time
during which the characteristics and the base of the personality is developed. Childhood is
one of the only stages in which the person could intake all the actions and reactions that he
witnesses or observes. The observing power in the childhood is quite high as the child has the
capability of acknowledging the minor actions which the adults could not observe. The
sensitivity of children is always higher than an adult and this makes the childhood stage one
of the most productive and at the same time most critical one. As per Remmel et al. (2019),
during childhood if a child captures some impactful actions or scenario, be it positive or
negative, the impact of that scenario is lifelong. It has been acknowledged by many people
that when a person witnesses some painful or dramatic scenario in his childhood by his close
ones, then the impact is much higher than when he witnesses such scenario of an unknown
person. The closed ones of the child has a direct and close impact on their personality and
mind-set, as the words they speak, their actions, reactions and decisions all gets closely
observed by the child and on the basis of these observations, the child builds up his
personality.
When a child witnesses some emotional family issues or problems, then he gets into a trauma
and this impacts him negatively to great extent (DeShong et al. 2016). The trauma builds a
wall around him within which the child confines himself and loses the capacity to think
beyond that situation. The negativity and the trauma overweighs his thoughts and his ability
to distinguish between right and wrong is weakened. The child loses his ability and capability
to understand the consequences of his negative and harmful thoughts, and gradually he gets
habituated to it (Ostrosky and Ardila, 2017). The family issues and problems, keeps on
impacting him and he gets more closer to his negativity and harmful thoughts. This grows