‘Unemotional children could grow up to be psychopaths’

 Children who do not care about being punished could grow up to be psychopaths, a King’s College scientist says.

Prof Stephen Scott, from the Institute of Psychiatry, said that the one in 100 children who displayed “callous unemotional traits” were not properly provided for by the mental health system.

He told the Today programme on BBC Radio 4: “Anti-social behaviour in children that is persistent and outside the normal is un-talked about because it’s rather shameful. About 5 per cent of children have a severe level of anti-social behaviour. But of those about a fifth have so-called callous unemotional traits. There is a high continuity from so-called anti-social personality disorder with psychopathic traits.”

He said the condition was “unrecognised”, and was almost always inherited.

“When we scan their brains we find that an area … where you acknowledge emotions and process them, is completely quiet and flat.”