Have you ever met a child psychopath?

[TheJuryIsOut]

There's some debate about whether psychopaths are born like that or made as a consequence of their environment/upbringing. If they are born that way (which I believe they are) have you ever met one? What were the signs?

I say this because there is a child in my wider family who I think may be a psychopath, there has been signs from when he was very very young and as he moves through his teenage years things have only got worse. I can't get on board with it being an environment thing as no one else in the family behaves the way he does, it's quite terrifying to think that no matter what you do your child could still go on to do horrific things and not feel a jot of guilt.

What do you think? Are they born or made?

You should read Sociopath by Patric Gagne. Although she’s a sociopath, the two disorders are very similar.

You sound like you just don’t understand what psychopathy is.

Has anyone ever seen the clips of Paris Bennett being interviewed by Piers Morgan? Cold, dead eyes of a Psychopath. It made me shudder.

You sound like you're pretending to and want to be a MN champ but I have a degree in (useless) psychology and I do know what it is, so thanks for your incorrect assumption.

Again, snarky and pedantic doesn't equate to intellect.

That was my first thought too. Poor kid.

I taught a group of boys from a school for those with behaviour, social and emotional issues.
Some of the backgrounds were so sad.
One had been through seven foster families, one was the son of a pimp, apparently.
One was the last of a 6 children from a decent family. He was totally our
T of control and at age 8 had 2 adults with him at all times. He could be very volatile.
Another refused to learn to read and write and was looking forward to his career in drug dealing. The negative energy that came off that boy was extraordinary. You could "feel" his bad vibrations (or what ever you want to call it) from across a very large room.

Most of them didn't stand a chance. Some made it to college or Uni.

Staff tried desperately hard to nurture them, and there was a wonderful lady who really wanted to mother them. Some just adored her. Others were probably too far gone and exploited her warmth and kindness.

Nature /nurture ...a heady mix of it all of the wrong side of life. Very sad.

I've met a child on my dad's dreadful gf side of family who always had a serious, angry frown from being a tiny toddler, had anger issues and was the nearest to a world weary jaded corroded adult version of a toddler I'd met. He wasn't well cared for and his mum and dad both on drugs, neither working, no ambition to be better parents, the mum desperate for a girl so always pregnant. He is now an angry man, been to prison a few times and just has a permanent scary look of threat on his face. Its sad to remember him as a little boy. Not sure it was nature more nurture there.

That sounds more like intrusive thoughts tbh. Perfectly possible to have horrible intrusive thoughts and not act on them.

Edit - i see others have made this point as well.

I think so. Waiting to see what his future holds.
Kills pets, animals, odd character and he has no empathy.
Doesn’t care about being punished. Unlikable.
Has 2 lovely siblings.

Nature or Nurture. Bit of both usually. But if child pulls the legs off a spider / treats animals cruelly at a very young age - it's almost certainly a precursor to being a nasty nasty person, whatever their label.

Children are not diagnosed

That doesnt mean children dont have psychopathy.

There’s a difference between how we informally use the term ‘psycho’ for bad behaviour and an actual psychopath though? And I thought pretty clear the OP is referring to the latter.

You then refer to ‘psychos’ that have been diagnosed with other mental health conditions which are totally distinct from psychopathy (and it’s pretty offensive to equate sufferers of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder with psychopaths).

@Samysungy but here you are talking about a narrow and actuarial use of the old ACEs checklist, rather than using this research to inform examination of predisposing factors for risk (which of course are not the only factors for risk), which is important for public protection

A bit like paedophilia. Most paedos have a sexual attraction to children. That's why the idea of mere idea of 'rehabilitation' is ridiculous in these cases.

A diagnosis isn't a definitive diagnosis especially when it is the opinion of one practitioner or practicing team. So, without schooling you on research, outcomes, nature versus nurture, child development, traits linked to psychopathy before formal diagnosis etc (I paid a great deal of money to get my useless degree so, if you're interested, you do the same) then you're not really speaking from an informed place.

You're just picking off what you thought was easy prey to make silly comments to and it was a fail. Move on, now.

There are kids who have callous traits and are at risk of becoming psychopaths, but a kid cannot be diagnosed. There is a fair bit of research on these kids to see what can help them stay straight and avoid criminal behaviour. They respond best to rewards but ignore punishment, and so smart parents and teachers can use this to reward good behaviour. They can learn not to hurt others but it takes time and effort, it doesn’t come naturally to them.

this site https://psychopathyis.org/ shares evidence and practical support to change outcomes for these people.

I have worked with traumatised children whom tend to be either extremely caring to others or completely egotistical with no empathy.
I have also encountered 6/7 young children who display psychopathic behaviours. All of those children have suffered repeated trauma in their young lives.
By psychopathic behaviour I mean, attempting to injure, harm or kill. Specifically animals and younger children. They are deceitful, forward thinking and artful.

i haven't met a child i thought was a psychopath and as some have pointed out the diagnostic criteria are used in children.
I watched the Pier Morgan documentary about Paris Bennett a dangerous psychopath who brutally killed his 4 yr old sister when he was 13 yrs old. The murder was a cold,calculated planned brutal stabbing.He showed no remorse and he was terrifying. He was later diagnosed with psychopathy and despite not being diagnosed in children, i think he was a child psychopath.

I think pulling legs of a spider is something a lot of children might do, an animal that can scream/react in pain not so much

I thought of him straight away and thought if children can’t be diagnosed as being psychopaths some are just plain evil.

There is a book by Tess Stimson called “the mother” about child psychopathy and if it’s nature or nurture.
It’s fiction but thought provoking and the author did a lot of research about the subject.

Even Axel Rudakubanas parents were terrified of him and people say they should have stopped him but I don’t think they ever could have prevented him without being harmed themselves.
He has thrown a kettle full of boiling water over guards in prison and if he was ever realised he would be a grave danger to everyone.

I'm not a mental health professional I can't diagnose, but when I was 15 in the mid 90s I was asked to babysit my boyfriends aunts friends child as well as my boyfriends aunts child so they could go out. He was 3. No one else would watch him including his own family saying not again and looking back it was suspect how it was put to me to baby sit but I would not be surprised if that person was now in prison. He tried to drown my boyfriends aunts toddler in the bath by bursting in to the bathroom as I had my back turned for literally 5 seconds to turn away from the bath to get the towel off the rail and he dunked her under the water with both hands. Can't have been for more than 3 seconds as I was right there but I've never been so scared he was so strong. I couldn't get him off and her above water. I said I would never babysit for him again and got no push back at all from the mum. Boyfriends aunt was suspiciously unbothered even though I was in bits. Toddler was ok after coughing up water.
Toddler would be in her 20s now. I've always wondered what become of her, but that kid...he was something else.

There was a boy in my son’s class who, even at 5 showed signs of aggressive behaviour and vandalism although he said ‘sorry’ it was obvious he didn’t feel any remorse. Unfortunately his parents were deemed pillars of the Community (school governor and school secretary) so his frequent violence was passed off as him being wound up by the victim, personally I have experienced him threaten a child with a penknife in his back, just walk up and from nowhere punch a child in his face, tried to strangle a boy (fortunately it was done in front of school cctv as this boy really hurt him getting his fingers from around his neck), I was driving with him in my car on the motorway and he undid a boys seatbelt and punched in as hard as he could in between his legs and the worst one I heard of was him attacking a girl from behind in a woods. These were all unprovoked and as I said he gave a half hearted apology and the victims were expected to accept this. Whether he has personality disorder or not I can’t say, I banned him from my house and refused to take him anywhere i just sensed he was trouble, he’s now a policeman.

Uhhm no. No it isn't..

Sounds like the degree was a waste of time then… sorry about that

Similar to what is happening here between us. Have a great day.