Introduction
According to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program (UCR) (2009), murder is defined as “the willful killing of one human being by another” (Crime in the U.S). The UCR Program collects homicide data that provides race of the murder victim and offender. Of the offender for whom gender was known, 44.4% were white (FBI, 2012). A small number of studies have investigated this issue (Cornell et al., 1996; Hart & Dempster, 1997). Williamson, Hare, and Wong (1987) examined the nature of the violent offenses in a group of 101 Canadian offenders. They found that psychopathic offenders were motivated by material gain or revenge (45.2% compared with 14.6% of the nonpsychopaths) and did not appear to have …show more content…
According to Cleckley’s (1976) classic conception, the behavior of the psychopathic individual often is motivated by a clear external goal rather than the powerful emotions of rage or despair associated with crimes of passion and that many psychopaths, in fact, displayed a profound deficit in emotional reactivity. Given their propensity toward violence in general (e.g., Hart & Hare, 1997), the use of instrumental or proactive violence would not be unexpected from the criminal psychopath. The general lack of empathy or remorse and the presence of shallow emotions (e.g. Hare, 1991, 1998) could be manifested in the context of their crimes and, more specifically, their homicides. On the other hand, psychopathy often is associated with impulsivity and poor behavioral controls (and problems with temper control), suggesting that violence by psychopaths might be highly reactive and inordinate to a particular situational …show more content…
In order to understand why people commit crimes we must understand their feelings. Homicide is the act while psychodynamics analyzes the mental state of people. The word ‘psycho’ comes from psychology, and the point of psychology is to understand people and their problems. In this case it is to understand why people kill. Things that people are aware remain in their conscious. However, most of people’s beliefs and feelings remain unconscious. Until people become aware of their unconscious urges they may engage in destructive behavior (Vito and Maahs,