Warm parenting can make a difference to children with psychopathic traits, but only at a young age, so it is vital to find those who display early warning signs, writes Dr John J Marshall
Psychopathic traits are a devastating developmental trajectory. As the rape and murder of Alesha Mcphail has shown, the ruthless self-interest and callousness associated with psychopaths lead to staggering human costs. You don’t become a psychopath on your 16th birthday. Psychopathic traits start in very early childhood, have predictable pathways and yet we do not assess children for this neurodevelopmental problem. As one of the psychologists involved in the Aaron
Campbell case, having assessed psychopaths for 25 years in Scotland and carried out research on the topic, I feel determined that some good comes from this tragedy for Alesha’s family, in the form of raising awareness of the need for early prevention.
It would be tempting to think that the type of sadistic homicide carried out by Campbell is so rare that there is little we need to do about people with psychopathic traits. It is estimated that less than one to three per cent in the population will be diagnosed with these traits over their lifetime and even among offenders only around eight per cent are psychopathic. However, psychopaths are responsible for overwhelming misery, disproportionate amounts of crime, more varied offending and they are far more likely to be responsible for homicide. They may even be responsible for more than half of all persistent, violent crimes.
I assessed one psychopathic man in Scotland who was described by police as a “one-man crime wave” for his region before he was finally stopped. Other researchers also describe how people with psychopathic traits wreak havoc in relationships and organisations, bullying their staff and permeating work culture with manipulation and lying. Researchers are trying to focus on the causes of psychopathic traits and the early pathways children are launched on.
To my own professional cost, over years I’ve repeatedly raised the issue of this devastating public health problem, along with the need to screen children referred to child and adolescent mental health services (CAHMS) and social work, for example. The response to such proposals has been highly negative. I’ve been vilified about labelling children, lectured on issues of mental health stigma, told psychopathic traits don’t exist in children despite the scientific evidence, and even faced dealing with complaints from professionals about using the term ‘callous-unemotional traits’ – a precursor to psychopathy – for a child. Such attacks are from professionals who fail to understand the trajectories and devastating life outcomes for society from this group. It’s not only the victims we should consider. Children who end up psychopathic do not choose their atypical-neuro-psychological functioning, they often end up hooked on poly-substance abuse, display suicidal behaviour and can have short lives, if immersed in a violent sub-culture.
Psychopathy is therefore a major public health issue, urgently requiring strategies for early identification and prevention. Two decades of scientific inquiry into developmental problems and causal mechanisms have been critical in growing our understanding of how a range of childhood psychological problems emerge, disproportionately focusing on the role of adverse childhood experiences (ACES) in Scotland. There is a culture in children’s services that almost everything we see has to be linked to some past trauma.
Childhood trauma is of course important, but it is not the only story of child development. Genetic causal factors leading to certain temperamental or neurodevelopmental problems are rarely acknowledged. Mention of genetic predispositions can be determinantal to careers. I know of senior colleagues who have raised the issues of genetic or neurodevelopmental causal ideas to the cost of their careers, leading to them being side-lined to those following the ‘gods’ of ACES and trauma, as their panacea for all of society’s ills.
Aaron Campbell’s case shows how childhood trauma was not a major causal driver. In fact, typical of most children who end up with psychopathic traits of callousness, lack of empathy and unemotionality are seen from a very early age. It’s intuitively appealing to hook such extreme murderous sadism on to some critical trauma but the research evidence is stacking up