Eric Harris
The Columbine Massacre
Psychopaths revolve in our worlds, some severely dangerous to the community, others not so much. The shooter of Columbine, Eric Harris portrays the signs of psychopathy extensively. The purpose of this paper is to assess Harris using the PCL-R to determine whether Eric Harris is in fact a psychopath. Writing this paper will conclude if he is psychopathic or not, and to which degree if he is. All of the twenty traits will be assessed to come to a conclusion. The paper will be structured in three main parts; the concept of psychopathy, a description of the traits Eric Harris portrayed and a conclusion of whether or not he is actually a psychopathic.
Concept of Psychopathy
The first personality disorder to be recognized in psychiatry (Millon, Simonsen, Birket-Smith & Davis, 1998, pg. vii) was Psychopathy. Psychopathy is a personality disorder that is compromised of one or more of the following: Psychopathic Personality Disorder, Sociopathy Disorder or Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD). Amongst these three, the broadest range of psychopaths comes from APD. APD is defined as a severe irresponsible and anti-social behavior beginning in childhood and continuing past age eighteen (Passer, Smith, Atkinson, Mitchell & Muir, 2008, pg. 588). The most effective way to diagnose psychopathy is with Dr. Robert D. Hare’s Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) (Hare, 1993) is the psycho-diagnostic tool most commonly used to assess psychopathy (Lynam, 1996, pg. 230). The checklist has a total of twenty distinct traits. Each item in the PCL-R is scored on a 3-point scale (0, 1, 2) (Patrick, 2006, pg. 58). The cut off score in North America that determines if one is in fact a psychopath is thirty.
Causes of Psychopathy
Two specific potential social causes contribute to psychopathy: nature or nurture. Nature indicates that an individual whom is psychopathic is born a true psychopath with no sense of conscience. Recent data suggests that there
Psychopaths revolve in our worlds, some severely dangerous to the community, others not so much. The shooter of Columbine, Eric Harris portrays the signs of psychopathy extensively. The purpose of this paper is to assess Harris using the PCL-R to determine whether Eric Harris is in fact a psychopath. Writing this paper will conclude if he is psychopathic or not, and to which degree if he is. All of the twenty traits will be assessed to come to a conclusion. The paper will be structured in three main parts; the concept of psychopathy, a description of the traits Eric Harris portrayed and a conclusion of whether or not he is actually a psychopathic.
Concept of Psychopathy
The first personality disorder to be recognized in psychiatry (Millon, Simonsen, Birket-Smith & Davis, 1998, pg. vii) was Psychopathy. Psychopathy is a personality disorder that is compromised of one or more of the following: Psychopathic Personality Disorder, Sociopathy Disorder or Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD). Amongst these three, the broadest range of psychopaths comes from APD. APD is defined as a severe irresponsible and anti-social behavior beginning in childhood and continuing past age eighteen (Passer, Smith, Atkinson, Mitchell & Muir, 2008, pg. 588). The most effective way to diagnose psychopathy is with Dr. Robert D. Hare’s Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) (Hare, 1993) is the psycho-diagnostic tool most commonly used to assess psychopathy (Lynam, 1996, pg. 230). The checklist has a total of twenty distinct traits. Each item in the PCL-R is scored on a 3-point scale (0, 1, 2) (Patrick, 2006, pg. 58). The cut off score in North America that determines if one is in fact a psychopath is thirty.
Causes of Psychopathy
Two specific potential social causes contribute to psychopathy: nature or nurture. Nature indicates that an individual whom is psychopathic is born a true psychopath with no sense of conscience. Recent data suggests that there
References: Blair, J., Mitchell, D., & Blair, K. (2005) The psychopath: Emotion and the Brain. Padstow, Cornwall: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.. Criminology 214E. (2012) Sel Topics in Crim:Psychopathy Cullen, D. (2009) Columbine. New York, NY: Hachette Book Group Fast, J. (2008). Ceremonical Violence: a Psychological Explanation of School Shootings. Woodstock, NY: The Overlook Press, Peter Mayer Publishers, Inc.. Hare, R. (1993) Without Conscience. New York, NY: The Guilford Press. Lynam, D. R. (1996) Early Identification of Chronic Offenders: Who is the fledgling Psycopathy? Psychological Bulletin, 120(2), 209. Millon, T., SImonsen, E., Birket-Smith, M., & Davis, R. (1998) Psychopathy: Antisocial, Criminal and Violent Behavior. New York, NY: The Guilford Press. Passer, M., Smith, R., Atkinson, M., Mitchell, B., & Muir, D. (2008) Psychology: Frontiers and Applications (3rd ed.). USA: Quebecor Printing Dubuque. Patrick, C. (2006) Handbook of Psychopathy. New York, NY: The Guilford Press.