Psychopathy in Relation to Violence

         Researcher Dr. Joseph Newman studies the psychological processes that contribute to the deregulation of behavior, emotion, and cognition within psychopathy patients. He recently presented on the topic of Integrating psychological and Neuroscience Perspectives on Psychopathy. He discussed the heterogeneity of criminal behavior, which goes against ideals that suggest a single category of criminals. One of the most important pieces from his presentation was his focus on Lykken and the Low Fear Hypothesis. This hypothesis is supported by Cleckley's less dense hypothesis which states that a psychopath is born fearless due to a distal cause. This translates to a low fear IQ and poor fear conditioning. Furthermore there is poor passive avoidance due to a proximal point. The Low Fear Hypothesis foes on to describe how the amygdala mediates deficit. In other words, it controls the emotions and qualities that psychopaths lack. This includes: poor passive avoidance which is the inhibition of punished responses, weak electro-dermal activity in response to threat and punishment cues, deficits in emotion-modulated start;e response in picture viewing, deficits in fear conditioning, and a reduction of amygdala activation. As a person focuses on a task, a threat is introduced, and the person becomes insensitive to that threat.
         The European Journal of Psychotraumatology published the article titled Growing up in Armed Groups: Trauma and Aggression among Child Soldiers in Dr Congo. The article focused on the group of child soldiers that were both victims and perpetrators of their acts of violence. A study that surveyed 200 child soldiers and adult combatants in the DR Congo reported that the "armed group is related to higher levels of trauma-related disorders and aggressive behavior," which explains the "challenge of reintegrating former child soldiers" (Hermenau et al., 1). This also ties in with Lykken's Low Fear Hypothesis. As child soldiers continue to involve themselves in violent environments and acts, they grow desensitized to the results of their actions. They also grow desensitized to the reprecussions that government authority figures in their community threaten upon them because they no longer fear the, since they are now in the position of power.

Data of child Soldiers

The link above labeled "Data of Child Soldiers" illustrates descriptive data concerning military experiences, mental health and violence in former child soldiers and adult combatants.

The table above comes from peter Langman, author of Thirty-Five Rampage School Shooters: Trends, Patterns, and Typology. It chronicles school shootings that happened from 1975-2007 and categorizes each school shooter as traumatized, psychotic, psychopathic, or uncategorized. The table is meant to display a correlation between mental health and killers. It also supports Lykken's Low Fear Hypothesis.

Works Cited

Hermenau, Katharin, Tobias Hecker, Anna Maedl, Maggie Schauer, and Thomas Elbert. "Data of Child Soldiers." National Center for Biotechnology Information. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 06 Nov. 2013. Web. 07 Dec. 2013.

<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3820919/table/T0001/>

Hermenau, Katharin, Tobias Hecker, Anna Maedl, Maggie Schauer, and Thomas Elbert. "Growing up in Armed Groups: Trauma and Aggression among Child Soldiers in Dr Congo." National Center for Biotechnology Information. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 06 Nov. 2013. Web. 07 Dec. 2013.

<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3820919/>

Langman, Peter. Thirty-Five Rampage School Shooters: Trends, Patterns, and Typology.New York: Springer, 2013. 131-56. Web. 07 Dec. 2013.

<http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4614-5526-4_6>