Sociopathy: The border between Madness and Reality in the Production of Crime

Abstract

Introduction: The severity of symptoms in individual cases depends on factors such as age of onset, extent and side of brain damage, and rate of progression of the underlying etiology. Integrative Review: Each generation of mental health professionals has to discover for itself the importance of personality disorder. Unfortunately, and unduly, the place of personality and personality disorder in contemporary mental health has either been ignored entirely or employed as another reason to exclude patients from services. Method: The present article is an integrative review based on bibliographic research formulated through published articles on the knowledge and performance of professionals in the concentration area "health" on the subject "Sociopathy". Results: The historical roots of the concepts of abnormal personality, social deviance, delinquency and criminal responsibility are described, demonstrating that previous concepts of psychopathic personality often included negative social evaluations. Discussion: Psychopathy predicts violence and other antisocial conduct in both offenders and psychiatric patients. Furthermore, released psychopathic offenders have an increased risk of recidivism when compared to their nonpsychopathic counterparts. Final Considerations: Specific profiling becomes more refined when collecting evidentiary facts at the crime scene, with the primary goal of a typology of the behavioral characteristics and psychological makeup of the offender.