Prevalence of Psychopathy, Intimate Partner Homicide, and Suicide Risk in Spain

Abstract

The most extreme form of intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW) is female intimate partner homicide (female IPH). The main goal of this study was to analyze the prevalence of psychopathy in a sample of Spanish male offenders of female IPH. This study also aimed to examine the relationship between psychopathy and committing suicide after female IPH in a sample of 76 Spanish male offenders of female IPH. We examined the presence or lack of psychopathic traits or psychopathy itself, using the two factors and four facets of the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R). Applying this procedure, we obtained a series of descriptive statistics and frequencies, to which we applied Student’s t-test and variance analyses. We found a low prevalence of subjects diagnosed as psychopath at a cut-off score equal or greater than 30 on the PCL-R, but a higher prevalence was found with a cut-off score of 25. The presence of factor I traits (personality and interpersonal characteristics) was greater than factor II (impulsive and antisocial behavior) among female IPH offenders. Higher scores on factor II and lower on factor I were related to an increased risk of suicide after committing female IPH. The study data support international research showing a significant presence of factor I traits (e.g., callousness and lack of empathy) among IPH offenders. Also, these data support that those male offenders of female IPH who presents characteristics of impulsivity and antisocial behavior do tend to commit suicide more frequently after committing female IPH.