Psychopathy in Serial Killers and Political Crime

Abstract

Serial killers or mass-murders had always been subject of interest for the science (criminology, sociology, psychiatry, psychology, etc.), as well as those individuals in power responsible for the crimes against humanity. Such psychopaths usually receive enormous attention by the media, but also by a public in general. Relation between psychopathy and crime is a quite controversial—not every psychopath is a criminal; neither every criminal is a psychopath. This may sound a discouraging preamble in the study of psychopathy and crimes. Even more discouraging to the forensic psychiatrists and psychologists is the fact that the most courts view psychopathy with a profound suspicion, regarding it often as a piece of the psychiatric flummery designed to frustrate their prerogative of sentencing confirmed offenders.