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Journal Article

Citation

Davis KM, Frederick A, Corcoran A. Aggress. Violent Behav. 2020; 52: 101424.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.avb.2020.101424

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The current study examined whether 24 cinematic characters described as psychopathic met Hare's (2003) criteria for psychopathy that is commonly used by mental health professionals in legal proceedings. The results indicated that most characters were depicted as having a high level of interpersonal and affective psychopathic traits but that only 21% of the characters met criteria to be classified as psychopaths. Information about characters' childhoods and adolescences were rarely provided, suggesting that films do a poor job of portraying behaviors prior to adulthood that are utilized when diagnosing psychopathy. Although all of the characters were shown engaging in criminal behavior, only half received criminal sanctions for their behavior. Implications of media's portrayal of psychopathy are discussed, with an emphasis on how media may shape laypeople's understandings of psychopathy and influence jurors' decisions when a defendant is described as psychopathic during legal proceedings.


Language: en

Keywords

Media; PCL-R; Psychopathy

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