Examining the Relationships Between Psychopathy, Offending, and Victimization

Abstract

Within the criminological literature, psychopathy, victimization, and offending have all been studied extensively. The victim-offender overlap is considered to be one of the most well-established facts in criminology, and the same can be said for the correlation between psychopathy and offending. However, little research has been conducted on the relationship between psychopathy and victimization. Using data from the Pathways to Desistance study, a longitudinal analysis of over 1,300 serious juvenile offenders, the current study builds upon this literature by testing three hypotheses: (1) psychopathy will be related to offending, (2) psychopathy will be related to victimization, and (3) psychopathy will relate to both offending and victimization even after controlling for their joint correlation. Moreover, although the literature is less specific regarding demographic differences in these relationships, the models will be estimated separately for across race and gender in order to better understand the differences in psychopathy across these two demographic variables. Implications, limitations, and directions for future research are highlighted.