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Psychopathy, Sadism and Serial Killing

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Violence and Psychopathy

Abstract

Like all complex human behavior serial killing is underpinned by a skein of interrelated and interacting processes; biological, social and psychological processes (Raine, 1993; Skrapec, this volume). Within the domain of personality disorder the two forms of disorder which have been most frequently implicated are psychopathy and sadistic personality disorder (SPD). It is not surprising that these disorders have been implicated as both entail predispositions to violence in general, and instrumental violence in particular (Cornell et al., 1995; Millon & Davis, 1996). These disorders are important not only because they can provide the motive to engage in serial killing -e.g., the need to dominate and humiliate- but also, they entail the absence of characteristics that would act as barriers to cruel and demeaning behavior -lack of empathy, shallow affect and callousness.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Douglas Inch Centre and Glasgow Caledonian University, Scotland, UK

    David J. Cooke

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  1. David J. Cooke
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA

    Adrian Raine

  2. Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science, University of Valencia & Queen Sofia Center for the Study of Violence, Valencia, Spain

    José Sanmartín

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© 2001 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Cooke, D.J. (2001). Psychopathy, Sadism and Serial Killing. In: Raine, A., Sanmartín, J. (eds) Violence and Psychopathy. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-1367-4_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-1367-4_7

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-5519-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4615-1367-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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