DARK TRAITS AND DARK FAMILIES: FAMILY DYSFUNCTIONS, PSYCHOPATHY AND SADISM AS FACILITATORS OF ADOLESCENT CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR

Janko MEĐEDOVIĆ, PhD

 Meri NEŠIĆ, MA

Miroslav KRSTIĆ, PhD

Psychopathy and dysfunctional family characteristics have been shown toa facilitate criminal behavior and criminal recidivism. The role of trait sadisma has not been explored in this context. We measured family dysfunctions (single or dual-parent families, quality of relations in families, presence ofi risk-factors, psychopathy (Interpersonal, Affective and Lifestyle traits) and sadism in a small sample of convicted adolescents (N=100). We collected measures of criminal behavior as well: the onset of criminal behavior,number of corrective measures, offences and convictions. The data showedh that participants who grew up in dysfunctional families had more pronounced psychopathy and criminal behavior. Interpersonal and Life style psychopathy traits positively correlated to criminal behavior as well. Sadism had a negative correlation with the onset of criminal behavior. In a regression model predicting general criminal recidivism (the first principalo component extracted from the measures of criminal behavior), only low quality family relations and high Lifestyle traits had an independent contribution to the prediction. We did not find interactions between the dark traits and family dysfunctions in the prediction of criminal recidivism. The data extends on previous knowledge regarding the role of the dark traits and family characteristics in adolescent criminal behavior.

KEYWORDS: psychopathy / sadism / dysfunctional family / criminal behavior / adolescents

1. PSYCHOPATHY AND ITS DEVELOPMENTAL TRAJECTORIES

Psychopathy represents a syndrome of behavioral dispositions consisting of several traits. One of the prominent psychopathy models (Hare & Neumann, 2009) describes these traits as follows: Interpersonal (egocentric manipulation and superficial charm), Affective (diminished tendency to experience negative emotions, especially guilt, fear and emotionalm empathy, Lifestyle (impulsiveness, irresponsibility and a lack of long-term plans) and Antisocial characteristics (criminal behavior, developmental conduct problems). These four traits load on two super-ordinate factors: Interpersonal and Affective traits constitute

Factor 1, while Lifestyle and Antisocial characteristics constitute Factor 2 (Hare, 2003).

Psychopathy is associated with various forms of immoral and antisocial behavior like violence, exploitation of others, immoral decision-making, bullying, repeatable criminale behavior etc. (Međedović, 2015). This is why the study of psychopathy is important both to behavioral science and to practitioners. Psychopathy is measured via rating protocols (Hare, 2003) and parallel self-report measures (Paulhus, Neumann, & Hare, 2015).

Psychopathy can be detected in early stages of ontogeny, with necessary limitations regarding the qualitative differences in behavioral traits between adults and children.

However, rating protocols for assessing psychopathy in four-year olds revealed a similar factor structure to the one obtained in adults: Grandiose/Deceitful, Callous/Unemotional and Impulsive/Need for Stimulation traits (Colins, Andershed, Frogner, Lopez-Romero,

Veen, & Andershed, 2014). It seems that psychopathy is relatively stable during childhood and adolescence, although there are data showing that individuals with higher scores on psychopathy show a decrease in these characteristics through adolescence (Frick, Kimonis,Dandreaux, & Farell, 2003). Psychopathy has been found to be associated with various forms of maladaptive behavior in childhood like attention deficiency, conduct problems,externalizing behaviors and ADHD symptoms in general (DeLisi, Vaughn, Beaver, Wexler,

Barth, & Fletcher, 2011; Forsman, Larsson, Andershed, & Lichtenstein, 2007; Freidenfelt & af Klinteberg, 2007). Furthermore, psychopathy is related to aggressive and antisocial behavior in youth, including bullying and peer violence: a lack of empathy and emotional callousness, together with narcissistic and impulsive characteristics are important predictors of bullying in adolescence (Ciucci & Baroncelli, 2014; Fanti & Kimonis, 2013). All of this data show that the connections between psychopathy and maladaptive behavior are present in early stages of ontogeny as well.

2. PSYCHOPATHY AND CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR

Psychopathy is found to be reliably positively correlated with criminal and antisocial behavior. Some researchers even suggested that psychopathy represents a key behavioral disposition related to criminal activity (DeLisi, 2009). Indeed, psychopathy is positively associated with a criminal career index – a composite score composed of age at onset off offending contacts with the police, substance use, court appearances etc. (Vaughn & DeLisi, 2008). Psychopathy can predict criminal recidivism as well, which is particularly important information since recidivists are especially harmful for society. 

Some studies show that the predictive potential of psychopathy is very high since it can predict criminal recidivism even when several other related variables related to delinquency are controlled,like education, intelligence, previous offenses, delinquent peers and substance abuse(Salekin, 2008). Furthermore, psychopathy predicts recidivism above and beyond basic personality traits which means that it does represent some of the crucial personality characteristics related to criminal behavior (Međedović, Kujačić, & Knežević, 2012).

However, if we take a closer look at the particular psychopathy traits which predicte recidivism a problem emerges. It is based on a tautological relation between psychopathy and stable criminal behavior. The problem is reflected in the fact that only Factor 2 iselated to criminal recidivism in most of the studies (Leistico, Salekin, DeCoster, & Rogers,2008). In fact, some data suggest that only Antisocial psychopathy characteristics are related to recidivism (Walters, Knight, Grann, & Dahle, 2008). This association is tautological since the predictor and the criterion measure represent the same behavior. It is certainly useful for practitioners, but it does not explain the origins of criminal behavior.

The question of Factor 1 traits relations to criminal behavior is still open. One of the crucial moderators in this relationship can be the type of criminal offense. For example, Affective characteristics are positively related to specific types of offenses like stalking (Storey, Hart,Meloy, & Reavis, 2009) or violent crimes in general (Roberts & Coid, 2007). On the other hand, if the type of offense is not controlled for, Affective traits can be negatively related to criminal recidivism (Burt, 2004; Međedović, 2015). For the purpose of the present study it is important to mention that psychopathy predicts criminal recidivism in adolescents as well. Psychopathy is more pronounced in delinquents than the compared control group (Chabrol, Van Leeuwen, Rodgers, & Séjourné, 2009). Psychopathy positively associates with delinquent and aggressive behavior, externalizing problems, earlier onset of alcohol consumption academic behavior problems and expulsion from school (Campbell, Porter, & Santor, 2004). In the sample of adolescent delinquents in Serbia, psychopathy significantly predicted the number of criminal offenses as a measure of criminal recidivism, but interestingly, Factor 1 was the key predictor in this study (Međedović, Kujačić, & Knežević, 2012a).

3. SUBCLINICAL OR "EVERYDAY" SADISM

In recent years researchers have tried to provide a more precise topography of the space of immoral and antisocial personality traits (Međedović, 2012). This resulted in the so called Dark Tetrad concept where the immoral side of human personality is described via four traits: psychopathy, Machiavellianism, narcissism and sadism (Chabrol et al., 2009;Međedović & Petrović, 2015). It is worth pointing out that egocentrism and manipulative behavior (the key features of narcissism and Machiavellianism) are already present in the four-factor model of psychopathy as a part of Interpersonal characteristics. However, trait sadism probably represents an important addition to the description of dark personality traits (Bulut, 2017). Sadism and psychopathy have a common core - a lack of emotional empathy to the distress of others (O’Meara, Davies, & Hammond, 2011). On the other hand, sadism has some additional characteristics which are not present in psychopathy:pleasant emotions which emerge as a reaction to the pain of others (Međedović, 2017). The research showed that sadism is positively associated with various immoral and antisocial outcomes like hurting others without provocation and no discernible benefits (Buckels,Jones, & Paulhus, 2013), vandalism (Pfattheicher, Keller, & Knezevic, 2018) or aggressive forms of humor and antagonism towards immigrants (Međedović & Bulut, 2017).

Research on the link between sadism and criminal behavior is still scarce. Until recently, the involvement of sadism in criminal behavior has been examined almost exclusively in the context of sexual sadism (Kingston, Seto, Firestone, & Bradford, 2010).

However, recent findings have shown that sadism may be associated with various forms of criminal behavior, not only offenses marked by sexual violence (DeLisi, Drury, Elbert,Tahja, Caropreso, & Heinrichs, 2017). Finally, the data on adolescents showed that sadism predict delinquency even when psychopathy is controlled in the analysis (Chabrol et al.,2009). These data suggest that sadism is not a redundant predictor of delinquency and that it can explain the variance of criminal behavior which is not accounted for by psychopathy.

4. DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILY ENVIRONMENT IS RELATED BOTH

TO DARK TRAITS AND CRIMINALITY

Of course, criminal behavior is not a consequence of personality characteristics alone.

Various environmental characteristics are related to to the production of criminal behavior.

Certainly, one of the most explored environmental factors that contribute to criminality,are various indicators of dysfunctional family relations. The existing data are congruent in finding links between the dysfunctions in interpersonal relations within the family and criminal behavior, both in adults (Jonson-Reid et al., 2010) and adolescents (Bender,Postlewait, Thompson, & Springer, 2011; Moffitt & Caspi, 2001). Furthermore, adverse family relations, especially childhood maltreatment has been found to associate with psychopathy traits as well (Borja & Ostrosky, 2013; Međedović, Petrović, Želeskov-Đorić, &Savić, 2017). The existing data shows that the presence of family maltreatment is positively related both to higher expressions of affective psychopathy traits (Kerig, Bennett,Thompson, & Becker, 2012) and to impulsive and reckless behavior (Poythress, Skeem, & Lilienfeld, 2006). So far, there is no data on the links between family dysfunctions and trait sadism. Finally, there is an interaction between the personal characteristics of individuals and family relations in the predictions of antisocial behavior. For example, negative parental practices are more related to problematic behavior in adolescents with low behavioral control (Van Leeuwen, Mervielde, Braet, & Bosmans, 2004).

MORE OF RESEARCH AND METOD on

pravda_po_meri_deteta.pdf