Characteristics of Criminal Homicides :: essays research papers

Michael Woodworth and Stephen Porter. (August 2002). In Cold Blood Characteristics of Criminal Homicides as a Function of Psychopathy. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, Vol. 111, No. 3, 436-445.OverviewThis study examined the correlation between mental disease and the characteristics of criminal homicides committed by offenders. ProblemIt was hypothesized that the homicides committed by psychopathic offenders would be more likely to be primarily instrumental (I.e., associated with premeditation, motivated by an external goal, and not preceded by a potent affective reaction) or cold-blooded in constitution (Pg. 436). However, homicides committed by nonpsychopaths often would be crimes of passionateness associated with a high level of impulsivity/reactivity and emotionality.MethodA sample of 125 Canadian offenders were selected for the study. The entire sample was examined in two different ways. First, double coding was used on a random selection of 21 offenders. These people were a sked questions and scored a number of points depending on their responses. All file information on these offenders were made available to the guile coder. Second, a set of 33 cases were randomly selected for dual coding. These cases were different because all details were not made available to the blind coder.ResultsThe results confirmed the hypothesis homicides committed by psychopathic offenders were more instrumental than homicides by nonpsychopaths. Almost all (93.3%) of the homicides by psychopaths were primarily instrumental in nature compared with 48.4% of the homicides by nonpsychopaths (Pg. 436). ConclusionThe authors conclusions from their study went to prove what they believed to be the outcome. Nothing was found to be shocking or a surprise when reviewing the end results.I touch the authors conclusions hit the nail right on the head.