title: Psychopathy and sexual sadism.
abstract: Psychopathic personality disorder and sexual sadism share several common characteristics, such as emotional detachment from the suffering of others or the preparedness to inflict pain or injuries. Based on a sample of 100 male forensic patients (all of them sex offenders, half of them sadistic), the concept of psychopathy and sexual sadism as a unified construct was tested empirically. Pooling indicator variables for psychopathic and sexually sadistic disorders showed that a two-factorial solution yielded a better fit than a single-factor model. The two factors identified psychopathy and sexual sadism as separate latent variables. More specifically, the data were compatible with a path model in which affective deficits and behavioral disinhibition of the psychopathy domain are precursors to sexually sadistic conduct.
authors.affiliation: Department of Forensic Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, School of Medicine, University of Regensburg, District Hospital, Universitaetsstrasse 84, 93053 Regensburg, Germany. andreas.mokros@medbo.de
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mokros
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Osterheider
authors.forename: Stephen J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Hucker
authors.forename: Joachim
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Nitschke
mesh_terms: D000987:Antisocial Personality Disorder / Q000150:complications* / Q000523:psychology*; D005555:Forensic Psychiatry; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D011329:Prisoners / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011594:Psychometrics; D012448:Sadism / Q000150:complications* / Q000523:psychology*