Sadism and psychopathy in violent and sexually violent offenders.
A nonrandom sample (N = 41) of inmates from a maximum security prison were classified as either psychopathic or nonpsychopathic (using the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R)) and violent or sexually violent. Sadism was measured using the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-II (MCMI-II) Scale 6B, the Personality Disorder Examination (PDE) items for sadistic personality disorder, and the sexual sadism criteria of DSM-IV. Psychopaths were found to be significantly more sadistic than nonpsychopaths (MCMI-II and PDE). Overall power was relatively high. Sadism did not differentiate the violent and sexually violent groups. A diagnosis of sexual sadism was too infrequent (n = 3) for meaningful statistical analysis. The trait measures of sadism and psychopathy measures (PCL-R, Factor 1 and Factor 2) significantly and positively correlated. Results provide further empirical validity for the theoretically proposed and clinically observed relationship between sadistic traits and psychopathic personality.
Holt
S E
SE
California School of Professional Psychology, San Diego, USA.
Meloy
J R
JR
Strack
S
S
D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000987:Antisocial Personality Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D002140:California / Q000453:epidemiology; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011329:Prisoners / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012448:Sadism / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D012742:Sex Offenses / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014754:Violence / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data