Abstract

It  appears  that  the  personality  and  background  factors  identified  for  sexual  offenders neatly fit into what I refer to as The  Violent  Personality.  The  literature  strongly  supports  that those who engage in violent behavior tend to engage in violence in several areas, not just one specific type of violence. For example, domestic abusers often sexually abuse/rape  their  partners;  engage  in  child  abuse,  animal  cruelty,  road  rage,  and  other  forms  of  violent and nonviolent criminal behavior. The personality factors and backgrounds of those who engage in violent behavior are similar. A thorough psychological and risk assessment, criminal  background  check,  as  well  as  interviews  with  those  who  know  the  offender  are  necessary  in  order  fully  understand  the  scope  of  the  violent  offender’s  criminally  violent  history. For example, being arrested for domestic violence should spark an investigation to assess other likely forms of violent behavior the abuser engaged in, including raping of his partner, abuse of the children in the home, as well as abuse of animals in the home, all likely having occurred but rarely assessed. Sociopathy and psychopathy should also be assessed for all violent offenders because of the serious implications for treatment interventions as well  as  risk  for  violent  reoffense.  Approximately  3-15%  of  those  with  APD  likely  have  psychopathy and another 30% likely have sociopathy. As I examine the violent personality, it  becomes  clearer  that  those  with  any  of  the  traits  of  the  violent  personality  are  likely  sociopaths or psychopaths because the traits of sociopathy/psychopathy are shared with the violent personality. In short, it is important to assess for sociopathy/psychopathy in all who  present  with  violent  behaviors,  tendencies  or  thoughts.  The  term  psychopath  tends  to be used to describe both the sociopath and psychopath and therefore the assessment of the sociopath is the same as for the psychopath, though there are differences between the two.  The  goal  of  this  article  is  to  discuss  what  I  call  the  Violent  Personality. Antisocial Personality  Disorder,  Sociopathy,  and  Psychopathy  will  be  discussed  to  understand  how  they are all part of the Violent Personality continuum. The available research literature will be discussed.

Keywords

psychopath, sociopath, violent personality, risk assessment, psychopathy, sociopathy