Sadism and psychopathy in violent and sexually violent offenders.

Abstract

A nonrandom sample (N = 41) of inmates from a maximum security prison were classified as either psychopathic or nonpsychopathic (using the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R)) and violent or sexually violent. Sadism was measured using the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-II (MCMI-II) Scale 6B, the Personality Disorder Examination (PDE) items for sadistic personality disorder, and the sexual sadism criteria of DSM-IV. Psychopaths were found to be significantly more sadistic than nonpsychopaths (MCMI-II and PDE). Overall power was relatively high. Sadism did not differentiate the violent and sexually violent groups. A diagnosis of sexual sadism was too infrequent (n = 3) for meaningful statistical analysis. The trait measures of sadism and psychopathy measures (PCL-R, Factor 1 and Factor 2) significantly and positively correlated. Results provide further empirical validity for the theoretically proposed and clinically observed relationship between sadistic traits and psychopathic personality.

• Authors: S E Holt, J R Meloy, S Strack
• Journal: The journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law (J Am Acad Psychiatry Law) Vol. 27 Issue 1 Pg. 23-32 ( 1999) ISSN: 1093-6793 [Print] United States
• PMID: 10212024 (Publication Type: Journal Article)

Topics

• Adult
• Analysis of Variance
• Antisocial Personality Disorder (epidemiology, psychology)
• California (epidemiology)
• Factor Analysis, Statistical
• Humans
• Male
• Prisoners (psychology, statistics & numerical data)
• Sadism (epidemiology, psychology)
• Sex Offenses (psychology, statistics & numerical data)
• Violence (psychology, statistics & numerical data)