Psychopathic traits among a consecutive sample of Finnish pretrial fire-setting offenders.

Annika Thomson,Jouko Miettunen,Eila Sailas,Jari Tiihonen,Nina Lindberg,Matti Virkkunen

doi:10.1186/s12888-015-0425-x

Abstract

BackgroundPsychopathy, a severe disorder of personality, is well represented in the criminal and forensic psychiatric population and is significantly associated with increased risk of violence and crime. Fire-setting is a major source of property damage, injury, and death in many Western countries. The primary aim of this study was to evaluate psychopathic traits in a consecutive sample of Finnish male pretrial fire-setting offenders. Further, we wanted to investigate whether fire-setting recidivists show higher traits of psychopathy than one-time firesetters and whether exclusive firesetters show lower traits of psychopathy than those with criminal versatility.MethodsThe forensic psychiatric examination statements for male firesetters who underwent a pretrial forensic psychiatric evaluation during a 10-year period (1989 –1998) were reviewed. The sample comprised 129 firesetters with normal IQ, 41 of whom were fire-setting recidivists. Fifty men were exclusive firesetters. Assessment of psychopathy-like personality character was performed using the 20-item Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised.ResultsTwo individuals (1.6%, 95% Cl: 0.0-3.7) scored ≥30 points and 19 (14.7%, 95% Cl: 8.6-20.8) ≥ 25 points on the PCL-R. The mean PCL-R total score was 16.1 (SD 6.88), the mean Factor 1 score 5.0 (SD 3.41), and the mean Factor 2 score 9.9 (SD 3.86). No significant differences emerged between the recidivists and the one-time firesetters. The versatile firesetters exhibited significantly higher mean total and factor scores than the exclusive ones.ConclusionAmong firesetters, there is a subgroup of persons with significant psychopathic traits, which should be recognized in legal and health care organizations. Although psychopathy was associated with greater criminal versatility, it bore no relationship to fire-setting recidivism.

Highlights

The main aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of psychopathic traits in a consecutive sample of Finnish male pretrial fire-setting offenders
The persons with mental retardation were omitted from the Psychopathy ChecklistRevised (PCL-R) assessments
Difficult to compare the scorings from other studies to ours, but in a Dutch study by Labree et al [18], the mean PCL-R total score for arsonists was slightly higher than that observed in our sample

Summary

Introduction

Psychopathy, a severe disorder of personality, is well represented in the criminal and forensic psychiatric population and is significantly associated with increased risk of violence and crime. Psychopathy, a severe disorder of personality, is defined as a constellation of affective, interpersonal, and behavioral characteristics, including impulsivity, irresponsibility, shallow emotions, lack of empathy, guilt, or remorse, pathological lying, and persistent violation of social norms and expectations [1,2,3]. Psychopathic individuals have been described as grandiose, arrogant, callous, dominant, superficial, and manipulative. They are short-tempered and unable to form strong emotional bonds with others. These interpersonal and affective features are associated with a socially deviant lifestyle that includes irresponsible behavior and a tendency to ignore or violate social conventions and morals [2]. While pyromania is a rare psychiatric disorder even among firesetters

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion