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The Role of Exposure to Violence and Psychopathy on Violent Crime Perpetration

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Abstract

Exposure to violence strongly predicts violent behavior. However, not all individuals who are exposed to violence engage in violent behavior. Personality is one factor that influences the translation from exposure to violence to engagement in violent behavior. Previous research in adolescents showed that psychopathy (a personality disorder) mediated the relationship between exposure to violence and violent behavior. However, this research has not: been conducted in adults, despite evidence of instability in exposure to violence and psychopathy across the lifespan; examined the specificity of this relationship to different expressions of psychopathy, such as subcomponent Factors and primary/secondary subtypes; and, considered other environmental experiences that may impact this relationship. In two samples of adults (community [N = 232] and prison [N = 313]), psychopathy affected the relationship between exposure to violence and violence (community indirect effect = 0.03, SE = 0.02, 95% CI = 0.004, 0.07; prison indirect effect = 0.14, SE = 0.05, 95% CI = 0.05, 0.25). These effects appeared to be related more strongly to the impulsive-antisocial traits of psychopathy and the secondary (high-anxious) subtype of psychopathy. Results were robust against demographic and other environmental experiences. Ultimately, our findings indicate that psychopathy is an important factor affecting the link between exposure to violence and violent behavior.

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Notes

  1. In the United States Black individuals disproportionately live in communities with the greatest disadvantage and highest rates of ETV (McNulty and Bellair 2003; Williams and Jackson 2005; Adelman 2004; Friedson and Sharkey 2015).

  2. Some research in youth samples show a positive correlation between callous-unemotional traits (a developmental precursor to Factor1 traits of psychopathy) and ETV (Kimonis et al. 2008; Howard et al. 2012). However, these traits and their relationship to ETV were not considered in the context of impulsive-antisocial traits (Factor2) nor was a full measure of psychopathy used in these studies. Therefore, the strength of the relationship between “Factor1” traits and ETV is unclear.

  3. In the community and prison samples, the measures of psychopathy and anxiety were different. At each site, a large battery of measures was administered. These batteries were used for a number of different studies and had to be standardized across those studies. Measures selected within each site were based on the goals of the individual studies that that site, the use of certain measures in previous work with similar samples, and the feasibility of administration at the site. The measures used have been shown to tap the same core constructs of interest and the slight variation in measures provided an opportunity to conduct a systematic replication.

  4. Given that we cannot ensure temporal order between ETV and psychopathy, mediation models were conducted using psychopathy as the independent variable and ETV as the mediator. The indirect effect was not significant in this model (indirect effect = 0.01, SE = 0.002, 95% CI = 0.00, 0.011).

  5. Given that we cannot ensure temporal order between ETV and psychopathy, mediation models were conducted using psychopathy as the independent variable and ETV as the mediator. The indirect effect was not significant in this model (indirect effect = 0.04, SE = 0.02, 95% CI = 0.00, 0.09).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Yale University, P.O. Box 208205, New Haven, CT, 06520, USA

    Suzanne Estrada & Arielle Baskin-Sommers

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin, 110 Inner Campus Drive, Austin, TX, 78705, USA

    Michelle Cinguina

Authors
  1. Suzanne Estrada
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  2. Michelle Cinguina
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  3. Arielle Baskin-Sommers
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Correspondence to Suzanne Estrada.

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Suzanne Estrada declares that she has no conflict of interest.

Michelle Cinguina declares that she has no conflict of interest.

Arielle Baskin-Sommers declares that she has no conflict of interest.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee, Yale University Institutional Review Board, and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Estrada, S., Cinguina, M. & Baskin-Sommers, A. The Role of Exposure to Violence and Psychopathy on Violent Crime Perpetration. J Psychopathol Behav Assess 43, 320–331 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10862-020-09834-3

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