Have you ever met a child psychopath?

Everyone is talking about murderers.

I thought psychopathy was more akin to they would run you over because your in the way and they dont care.

But they wouldnt run you over in a rage thing because they care too little about you to be bothered to do that.

The latter being a ‘psycho’ person but not actually a psychoPATH

I thought it was a fact that psychopaths were born without empathy?
I'm not an expert but I think we only ever here about the psychopaths so are violent, there are psychopaths who don't act violently even through they lack empathy.
A lot of children grow out of seemingly having no empathy as they did have empathy just a lack of impulse control

Where does the 50% figure come from? From everything I've read, anywhere between 1-5% of the general population meets the criteria for psychopathy...no where near 50%.

If you include sociopathy the population percentage is higher, but even combined, it doesn't come close to 50%.

Definitely met a few with potential to become one.

Harm OCD is not self- harm, though i can see the confusion. It’s when you have unwanted thoughts about harming others that you would never do. It’s a very distressing disorde

I work in education and have unfortunately met quite a few concerning children.

No it means intrusive thoughts about harming others. But thats all they are, just intrusive thoughts, not desires.

I tried to read this and I have to say I found it really really disappointing and boring

She never self-harmed!

I don't think anything is wrong with calling a child horrible. Horrible adults didn't just appear out of thin air

@stompythedinosaur I remember reading aboutsome sort of rehabilitation programme that therapists attempted with psychopaths. It backfired and made them 'better' at offending because they learned about their behaviours that were deemed unacceptable and marked them out, so they learned how to more effectively mask and manipulate, because they were, y'know, psychopaths who couldn't be rehabilitated.

Psychopathy is only diagnosed after age 18 as it is a personality disorder and personality has not developed until adulthood. There would be an argument for delaying this diagnosis until 25 for this reason. That doesn’t mean that signs are not there it’s just termed differently as emergent personality disorder. Often goes alongside attentional difficulties, attachment difficulties, callous and unemotional traits. These young people are often vulnerable and come from chaotic backgrounds. It would be wrong to saddle them with quite a damning diagnosis so early in life when they have so much growing to do, but that doesn’t mean that their vulnerabilities are not acknowledged by mental health professionals.

I think that sounds like ‘harm ocd’

its actually proven.

children who suffer frequent and/or severe ACEs (adverse childhood experiences) at a young age develop differently neurologically. Their brain is different and that can lead to some of the behaviours that cause violence.

It’s not an excuse - nothing excuses violence etc.

but it’s a reason/ explanation.

Just because you don’t like it doesn’t make it untrue!

Childrent cannot have a diagnosis of a physcopath until they reach adulthood. Can they show traits as they are younger? Absolutely. To initiate a diagnosis, professionals need to carry out assessments and find out their history which goes back to birth. It is very difficult to get a diagnosis of a physcopath, as the professionals will need to be certain the individual meet the requirements of the diagnosis. Physcopath symptoms can collerate with another mental healh disorder/illness.

Well maybe just ‘a school’ then. But I see what you mean .

Which is what I meant. A comprehensive school or school similar in size.
Similar can be private, public, college, any educational institution of the same size.

We need to talk about Kevin
by
Lionel Shriver

This was the most shocking nature/nurture book I’ve ever read. My eyes were popping. (The film of the book was rubbish IMO)

And the diagnositc criteria has changed over time and will change again.

Maybe not a psychopath but I've seen very young children with behaviours that make me believe they could be serious offenders as teens/adults. Maybe a product of their poor upbringing, maybe something innate in them, maybe a bit of both.

One 6 year old boy that showed clear misogyny and sexualised language, talking about 'suck my dick' and constantly swearing/using insulting language towards female school staff. Also very violent behaviour towards children and staff and an absolute disregard for any rules. Very very worrying, I hate to think what was going on in his home life. But I remember thinking I will not be remotely surprised if by the time he's 16 he's a rapist.

I do know someone who committed a series of terrible crimes who was all but called a psychopath by the judge who sentenced him. He has a 'normal' childhood, although his Father and one of his brothers were sociopaths in corporate way, they had no empathy and cared for noone except themselves. His father had been in the army and regaled everyone with tales of how many people he'd killed so I wonder if outside of that institution he may have harmed someone.. this person committed enough rapes to gain five life sentences and he'd previously been convicted of sexually abusing a child and was on licence at the time of the rapes. He had also planned to kill this victim and had planned it minutely. There is a huge blank about his childhood, he seems to have been in 'alternative' and not mainstream school for a while... All of that information and anything he may have done was not released to the public. We don't know what he'd done before, but there's a chunk missing. On sentencing, the Judge declined to give him place at a mental health facility because despite all the really awful things he told the psych, the probation service etc, they didn't feel he could be treated. This says to me psychopathy. He had killed a family cat and other neighbours cats and at least two dogs before and during his sexual abuse. He has sexually attacked a man, several women and even a trans sex worker, he also raped a mentally impaired woman but wasn't charged with this is as she wasn't competent to be a witness. The judge deemed him to be a danger to all people of all genders and ages, which is highly unusual. He was sentenced to five life sentences at just 25, so he had been at this a very long time. I think he was born that way, he was just so incredibly evil, so devoid of empathy and after his sentencing, there were a few comments online from people who'd been to college with him. People knew, they just couldn't believe what they were feeling about him. He'll be out in about 9 years barring any interventions to keep him there.

So you mean they haven't been able to be assessed as one, this doesn't mean they aren't.

Except that ALL psychiatric diagnoses are a matter of opinion. None of them are diagnosed by biological tests, only by observation of behaviour.

And all the diagnostic criteria in the DSM is a matter of a collective opinion.