The Role of Exposure to Violence and Psychopathy on Violent Crime Perpetration
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The Role of Exposure to Violence and Psychopathy on Violent Crime Perpetration Suzanne Estrada 1
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Michelle Cinguina 2
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Arielle Baskin-Sommers 1
# Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Exposure to violence strongly predicts violent behavior. However, not all individuals who are exposed to violence engage in violent behavior. Personality is one factor that influences the translation from exposure to violence to engagement in violent behavior. Previous research in adolescents showed that psychopathy (a personality disorder) mediated the relationship between exposure to violence and violent behavior. However, this research has not: been conducted in adults, despite evidence of instability in exposure to violence and psychopathy across the lifespan; examined the specificity of this relationship to different expressions of psychopathy, such as subcomponent Factors and primary/secondary subtypes; and, considered other environmental experiences that may impact this relationship. In two samples of adults (community [N = 232] and prison [N = 313]), psychopathy affected the relationship between exposure to violence and violence (community indirect effect = 0.03, SE = 0.02, 95% CI = 0.004, 0.07; prison indirect effect = 0.14, SE = 0.05, 95% CI = 0.05, 0.25). These effects appeared to be related more strongly to the impulsiveantisocial traits of psychopathy and the secondary (high-anxious) subtype of psychopathy. Results were robust against demographic and other environmental experiences. Ultimately, our findings indicate that psychopathy is an important factor affecting the link between exposure to violence and violent behavior. Keywords Exposure to violence . Psychopathy . Psychopathy Factors . Secondary psychopathy . Violence
In the United States, approximately 30% of all individuals witness, learn about, or are the victims of violent acts in their community (Finkelhor et al. 2011). For those who live in poor, urban communities, rates of exposure to community violence (ETV) are elevated, with about 80–100% of residents reporting exposure (Bender and Roberts 2009; GormanSmith and Tolan 1998; Stein et al. 2003) and Black youth in
* Suzanne Estrada [email protected] Michelle Cinguina [email protected] Arielle Baskin-Sommers [email protected] 1
2
Department of Psychology, Yale University, P.O. Box 208205, New Haven, CT 06520, USA Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin, 110 Inner Campus Drive, Austin, TX 78705, USA
low-income Chicago neighborhoods reporting exposure to at least one violent event per day (Richards et al. 2015).1 ETV is strongly associated with a host of adverse outcomes, such as physical and mental health issues, poor academic achievement, and neuropsychological dysfunction (Borofsky et al. 2013; Cooley-Quille et al. 2001; Fowler et al. 2009; Henrich et al. 2004; Sharkey et al. 2012; Wright et al. 2004). Additionally, ETV is one of the most robust predictors of engagement in violent behavior (Baskin and Sommers 2014;
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