Originally posted by rjpalmer
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Theft is a deviation from normal social behavior and a psychopath is always willing to deviate from the norms. However, theft is not any of the typically psychopathic crimes since it is more often than not a solitary act. Robbing somebody is more of a psychopathic crime, for example, because it contains controlling and deciding over other people.
If you think that I reason that a psychopath will not steal, you have misunderstood me. As I said before, a psychopath can engage in all sorts of crime, but some types of crime will be more telling than others when it comes to giving away psychopathy.
If we have a rape, a shooting, a person kicked to death and a theft occurring in the same town, my money would NOT be on the thief being the one most likely to be a psychopath. Perhaps you´d agree with that?
Speaking about Hare, here are his twenty points that define psychopathy:
glib and superficial charm
grandiose (exaggeratedly high) estimation of self
need for stimulation
pathological lying
cunning and manipulativeness
lack of remorse or guilt
shallow affect (superficial emotional responsiveness)
callousness and lack of empathy
parasitic lifestyle
poor behavioral controls
sexual promiscuity
early behavior problems
lack of realistic long-term goals
impulsivity
irresponsibility
failure to accept responsibility for own actions
many short-term marital relationships
juvenile delinquency
revocation of conditional release
criminal versatility
Can you find "stealing" or "theft" here? Nor can I. Then again, I can´t find "murder" either. That is because psychopaths can engage in - as I say - all sorts of crime. But it is primarily in the types of crime that involve an interaction between people that they excel, if you will allow the term. And stealing is not that type of crime - it is an antisocial thing, and thus it is on the list of possible deeds, but it ranks lower as a marker for psychopathy than the kinds of deeds where callousness and indifference for other people is more obvious - like for example killing women and cutting their innards out.
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