Psychopathic Symptoms and Official Convictions in Men and Women: Results from Generation 3 of the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development

• In Event: Recent Results from the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development

Abstract

The personality disorder of psychopathy has been widely studied within criminal justice contexts. But still, there are discussions and debates about how this important mental health condition is related to offending. One unresolved issue is to what extent symptoms of psychopathy are related to convictions after controlling for explanatory risk factors. The proposed study will address the key issue of investigating how useful these symptoms are in explaining offending by analysing data from the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development’s (CSDD) third generation (Generation 3; G3). The third generation consists of the biological children of the original 411 males (Generation 2; G2); 655 were searched in criminal records up to age 35, and 551 were interviewed at ag 25. The G3 consists of both males and females and allows for a unique investigation into gender differences in the relationships between psychopathic symptoms and offending. The current paper will (1) investigate how psychopathic symptoms are related to convictions, (2) investigate the strongest explanatory risk factors for convictions, (3) investigate the strongest explanatory risk factors for psychopathic symptoms, and (4) investigate to what extent psychopathic symptoms are related to convictions after controlling for these risk factors. Based on past research, the strongest explanatory childhood risk factors for G3 males are a convicted father, risk taking, low parental take-home pay, physical punishment by parents, poor parental supervision, and separation of the child from the parent. Implications for prevention and treatment will be outlined.

Authors

• Henriette Bergstrøm, University of Derby

• David Farrington, Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge