Virtual Issue: Psychopathy in Crime and Justice

Journal of Criminal Psychology

Dr Dominic Willmott (Editor-in-Chief) - Loughborough University, UK

Within Legal, Forensic and Criminological Psychology priorities vary and evolve over time. Certain crime types become less central to mainstream research endeavour and new offences and offenders take precedence. One obvious example is cybercrime. Cybercrime has exploded as our reliance on technology and the internet expands. Though, one area that has remained a core focus and of interest to researchers across these intersecting disciplines is Psychopathy. Since 2019 alone, more than 18,000 new articles have been published (and countless Netflix documentaries), making it one of the most researched and talked about topics in the study of crime. As such, I have drawn together 10 of the ‘latest and greatest’ research articles published in the Journal of Criminal Psychology (JCP). This includes work by many of the most prolific psychopathy researchers active today, who investigate the contemporary role of psychopathy in our understanding of crime and justice.

Please take advantage of the limited time free open access to all ten articles (six of which are newly published or accepted in the journal) that help us better understand the importance of psychopathy in the commission of crime and our criminal justice response to it.

The following articles are free access from 17th January 2024-17th February 2024

  1. The relation between psychopathy factors and emotional states prior and during criminal behaviour in a Dutch sample - Keulen-de Vos, M., Herzog-Evans, M. and Benbouriche, M. (2024)

  2. A multi-method investigation of motive dispositions: affiliative and antagonistic dispositions in psychopathy - Spantidaki Kyriazi, F., Bogaerts, S., Denissen, J.J.A., Yuan, S., Dufner, M. and Garofalo, C. (2023)

  3. The role of the dark triad and emotion regulation in women’ sexual coercion: a social information processing perspective - Escarguel, M., Benbouriche, M., Tibbels, S. and Przygodzki-Lionet, N. (2024)

  4. Why might psychopathy develop? Beyond a protective function: a commentary on Zara et al. (2023) - Brazil, K.J. (2024)

  5. Being unwanted and other very early predictors of adult psychopathy - Zara, G., Bergstrøm, H. and Farrington, D.P. (2024)

  6. Does a conduct disorder factor increment the capacity of the Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory-Short to predict criminal recidivism? - Pechorro, P., Gomide, P., DeLisi, M. and Simões, M. (2023)

  7. Psychopathic costs: a monetization study of the fiscal toll of psychopathy features among institutionalized delinquents - DeLisi, M., Reidy, D.E., Heirigs, M.H., Tostlebe, J.J. and Vaughn, M.G. (2018)

  8. The role of psychopathy factors in reactive aggression within a sample of prisoners - Debowska, A. and Zeyrek Rios, E.Y. (2015)

  9. Psychopathy and criminal behaviour: a psychosocial research perspective - Dhingra, K. and Boduszek, D. (2013)

  10. The psychopathy of a Victorian serial killer: integrating micro and macro levels of analysis - Wilson, D. and Yardley, E. (2013)