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 coefficient of correlation between psychopathy and the characteristics of criminal homicides move by off wind upers. ProblemIt was hypothesized that the homicides commit by psychopathic offenders would be more likely to be mainly slavish (I.e., associated with premeditation, motivated by an external goal, and not preceded by a potent affective reaction) or cold-blooded in nature (Pg. 436). However, homicides committed by nonpsychopaths often would be crimes of passion associated with a high take aim of impulsivity/reactivity and emotionality.MethodA sample of 125 Canadian offenders were selected for the study. The sinless sample was examined in two different ways. First, two-fold coding was employ on a random selection of 21 offenders. These people were asked questions and scored a number of points depending on their responses. All file information on these offenders were do available to the trick 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. cipher was found to be shocking or a surprise when reviewing the end results.I feel the authors conclusions hit the nail right on the head.