A Link between Psychopathy Affect and Instrumentality in Homicide

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

8-1-2022

Publication Title

Homicide Studies

Abstract

This study tests the hypothesis that psychopathy is more associated with instrumental homicides than mixed and reactive homicides, and explores relationships between Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) facet/item scores and different forms of homicide: instrumental (n = 130), mixed (n = 103), and reactive (n = 219) homicides. Instrumental homicides scored higher on facet 2 (p <.01) but scored lower on facet 4 (p <.1) compared to reactive homicides, whereas no facet scores differed between mixed and reactive homicides. Among the items of facet 2 (affective), remorselessness (item 6), and callousness (item 8) were predictive of instrumental homicide.

Department

Government and Sociology

Volume Number

26

Issue Number

3

First Page

308

Last Page

323

DOI

10.1177/10887679211028879

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