Psychopaths Television and Hollywood are great at painting pictures of murderers and mean ugly people that do heinous things to innocent people that have no idea what they are in store for. Occasionally on some of the major criminal television shows like “Criminal Minds,” or “Law and Order,” they will tell a story that involves someone that is abused by a relative, neighbor, or a teacher. Even when this happens, it doesn’t paint a clear and concise picture of a criminal psychopath. Not all psychopaths are violent. In fact, many of them can function successfully in society. They are not all antisocial, but they are all very self-centered and everything that they do is to benefit them. “In short, psychopaths have a predatory quality to them, and in order to understand them, it is important to view them as classic predators” (Hare, 2009).
Characteristics of Psychopaths
There is no perfect way to describe a psychopath because they come in all shapes and sizes. Psychopaths can be either sex, surprisingly, almost one percent of the general male population are psychopaths. Some psychopaths are violent, and some are not. Some of them enjoy being the center of attention, and some are very antisocial and do not like being in crowds. “Psychopaths differ from each other, and their condition can vary in severity. Current research suggests a continuum of psychopath ranging from those who are highly psychopathic to persons who have the same number or fewer traits in a milder form. A clinical assessment of psychopathy is based on the person having the full cluster of psychopathic traits—at least to some degree—based on a pattern of lifetime behaviors” (Hare, 2003). Psychopaths lack of remorse, furthermore, they act in cold hearted ways and manipulate people on order to use them as pawns to achieve their goals. Criminals in general do not accept responsibility for