Psychopathy and Female-Intimate Partner Homicide in Spain: A Brief Overview on recent research

Abstract

Some studies that assessed psychopathic characteristics through the PCL-R in some different but complementary samples of male offenders convicted for a crime of Intimate Partner Homicide (IPH) in recent research carried out in Spain are commented in this article, based on my opinion and technical considerations. This research arose from a comprehensive project carried out by a National Team of expert reviewers in the cases of violence against the women in the couple relationship. Some preliminary findings were presented in the Congress of Legal and Forensic Psychology in 2018 in Granada. It is highlighted the relevance of the congresses to disseminate findings. In 2023, one article has been published in the journal Anuario de Psicología Jurídica. The main objective was to assess the prevalence of psychopathy and the psychopathic characteristics measured by the facets of the PCL-R, and then their relationship with both consummated and unsuccessful suicide attempts was analyzed. Also, other scholars published a previous article in the year 2022 in which they compared the presence of some different characteristics between the victims (e.g., addictions to substances, economic dependency, or prior complaint, among others) and the male offenders psychopathic characteristics, measured in a slightly larger sample.