The childhood experiences of psychopaths: A retrospective study of familial and societal factors

We compared the childhood experiences of criminal psychopaths with those of criminal nonpsychopaths, to examine whether differences in either the type or intensity of adverse experience in childhood could be identified. One h undred and five prisoners, 50 psychopaths, and 55 nonpsychopaths were asses sed with the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) and Childhood Experience of Care and Abuse (CECA) semistructured interviews, Both assessment measur es have been demonstrated to be reliable and valid instruments, File inform ation from both adult and child services provided corroborative material. F actor analysis of the childhood experience variables revealed two distinct factors, familial and societal, both of which were highly correlated with a dult psychopathy scores. These findings suggest that: the experiences psych opaths have in childhood influence adult outcome.