The Personality Factor That Makes

Some Violent Criminals So

Dangerous

Why some violent criminals are more

likely than others to offend again.
Violent offenders who are also psychopaths are so
dangerous because their brains do not learn
normally from either punishments or rewards, a
new study finds.
Published in The Lancet Psychiatry, the research
scanned the brains of violent offenders, some of
whom were psychopaths, others not (Gregory et
al., 2015).

Psychopaths had smaller brain areas related to

empathy and the processing of emotions like guilt,
embarrassment and moral reasoning.
Dr Nigel Blackwood, one of the studys authors,
said:
Psychopathic offenders are different from regular
criminals in many ways.
Regular criminals are hyper-responsive to threat,
quick-tempered and aggressive, while psychopaths
have a very low response to threats, are cold, and
their aggression is premeditated.
Evidence is now accumulating to show that both
types of offenders present abnormal, but
distinctive, brain development from a young age.
Of the 50 people in the study, 12 were
psychopathic offenders, 20 non-psychopathic
offenders and 18 healthy non-offenders.
The offenders had been convicted of very serious
offences like attempted murder, murder, rape and
grievous bodily harm.
Along with brain scans, the participants were also
given a simple image matching task which required
them to learn from both rewards and punishments.

Dr Blackwood explained the results:

When these violent offenders completed
neuropsychological tasks, they failed to learn from
punishment cues, to change their behaviour in the
face of changing contingencies, and made poorer
quality decisions despite longer periods of
deliberation.
Professor Sheilagh Hodgins, who led the study,
explained its implications:
Most individuals do not walk in front of buses as
they can imagine the horrible consequences if the
bus hits them.
Offenders do not walk in front of buses either,
suggesting that they also learn from punishment,
nor do they show less sensitivity to punishment
than others.
In childhood, both psychopathic and nonpsychopathic offenders alike are repeatedly
punished by parents and teachers for breaking
rules and for assaulting others, and from
adolescence onwards, they are frequently
incarcerated.
Yet they persist in engaging in violent behaviour
towards others.

Thus, punishment does not appear to modify their

behaviour.
The majority of violent offenders, though, are not
psychopaths, as Professor Hodgins explained:
One in five violent offenders is a psychopath.
They have higher rates of recidivism and dont
benefit from rehabilitation programmes.
Our research reveals why this is and can hopefully
improve childhood interventions to prevent violence
and behavioural therapies to reduce recidivism.