Psychopathic personality disorder and cybercriminality: an outline of the issue

Authors

Keywords:

cyberspace, psychopathic personality disorder, criminal offences

Abstract

The rapid development of information and communication technologies has created a new dimension in interpersonal relationships, which is commonly called cyberspace. Structural features of cyberspace such as anonymity, the lack of non-verbal indicators of interaction, their asynchrony, a sense of impunity and the lack of specific norms of conduct cause that the behavior of some people online may differ significantly from their behavior in real life. Individuals with psychopathic personality disorder can use cyberspace for criminal activities such as cyberbullying, trolling, digital piracy, cybervandalism or data theft. This is a very significant problem, as some researchers predict that as digital communication develops, ‘cyberpsychopaths’ will become the dominant form of criminals. Currently, there is a lack of research on the relationship between the structural features of cyberspace and the expression of psychopathic personality traits and their role in committing cybercrimes.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Amichai-Hamburger, Y. (2005). Personality and the Internet. In Y. Amichai-Hamburger (Ed.), The social net: Human behavior in cyberspace (pp. 27–55). Oxford University Press.

Armstrong, H. L., & Forde, P. J. (2003). Internet anonymity practices in computer crime. Information Management & Computer Security, 11, 209–215. https://doi.org/10.1108/09685220310500117.

Babiak, P., & Hare, R. D. (2006). Snakes in suits: When psychopaths go to work. Harper-Collins. Bakan, J. (2004). The corporation: The pathological pursuit of profit and power. Free Press.

Barak, A. (2005). Sexual harassment on the Internet. Social Science Computer Review, 23, 77–92. https:// doi.org/10.1177/0894439304271540.

Best, J. (2011). Constructing deviance. In C. Bryant (Ed.), The Routledge handbook of deviant behaviour (pp. 17–23). Routledge.

Blair, R. J. (2006). The emergence of psychopathy: Implications for the neuropsychological approach to developmental disorders. Cognition, 101, 414–442. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2006.04.005.

Brandt, J. R., Kennedy, W. A., Patrick, C. J., & Curtin, J. J. (1997). Assessment of psychopathy in a population of incarcerated adolescent offenders. Psychological Assessment, 9, 429–435. https://doi.org/10.1037/1040-3590.9.4.429.

Brons, L. (2017). The hegemony of psychopathy. Brainstorm Books. Buckels, E. E., Trapnell, P. D., & Paulhus, D. L. (2014). Trolls just want to have fun. Personality and Individual Differences, 67, 97–102. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2014.01.016.

Campbell, Q., Kennedy, D. M., Bosworth, S., Kabay, M. E., & Whyne, E. (2014). The psychology of computer criminals. Computer security handbook (6th ed.). John Wiley & Sons.

Caspi, A., & Gorsky, P. (2006). Online deception: Prevalence, motivation, and emotion. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 9, 54–59. https://doi.org/10.1089/cpb.2006.9.54.

Chaudhry, P. E., Chaudhry, S. S., Stumpf, S. A., & Sudler, H. (2011). Piracy in cyberspace: Consumer complicity, pirates and enterprise enforcement. Enterprise Information Systems, 5, 255–271. https://doi.org/10.1080/17517575.2010.524942.

Chen, V. H. H., & Wu, Y. (2013). Group identification as a mediator of the effect of players’ anonymity on cheating in online games. Behaviour & Information Technology, 34, 658–667. https://doi.org/10. 1080/0144929X.2013.843721.

Coid, J., & Yang, M. (2008). The distribution of psychopathy among a household population: Categorical or dimensional? Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 43, 773–781. https://doi. org/10.1007/s00127-008-0363-8.

Coid, J., Yang, M., Ullrich, S., Roberts, A., & Hare, R. D. (2009). Prevalence and correlates of psychopathic traits in the household population of Great Britain. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 32, 65–73. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijlp.2009.01.002.

Cooke, D. J., & Michie, C. (2001). Refining the construct of psychopathy: Towards a hierarchical model. Psychological Assessment, 13, 171–188. https://doi.org/10.1037/1040-3590.13.2.171.

Davis, J. P. (2002). The experience of ‘bad’ behavior in online social spaces: a survey of online users. Social Computing Group, Microsoft Research.

Davis, R. A., Flett, G. L., & Besser, A. (2002). Validation of a new scale for measuring problematic internet use: Implications for pre-employment screening. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 5, 331–345. https:// doi.org/10.1089/109493102760275581.

DeLisi, M. (2019). Psychopathy and crime are inextricably linked. In M. DeLisi (Ed.), Routledge international handbook of psychopathy and crime (pp. 3–12). Taylor & Francis.

Dutton, K. (2012). The wisdom of psychopaths: What saints, spies, and serial killers can teach us about success. Doubleday Canada.

Flores, A., & James, C. (2013). Morality and ethics behind the screen: Young people’s perspectives on digital life. New Media & Society, 15, 834–852. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444812482842.

Forth, A. E., & Burke, H. C. (1998). Psychopathy in adolescence: Assessment, violence and developmental precursors. In D. Cooke, A. Forth, & R. Hare (Eds.), Psychopathy: Theory, research and implications for society (pp. 205–230). Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Fox, J., & Rooney, M. C. (2015). The Dark Triad and trait self-objectification as predictors of men’s use and self-presentation behaviors on social networking sites. Personality and Individual Differences, 76, 161–165. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2014.12.017.

Fung, A. L., Gao, Y., & Raine, R. (2010). The utility of the child and adolescent psychopathy construct in Hong Kong China. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 39, 134–140. https://doi. org/10.1080/15374410903401138.

Garcia, D., & Sikström, S. (2014). The dark side of Facebook: Semantic representations of status updates predict the dark triad of personality. Personality and Individual Differences, 67, 92–96. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2013.10.001.

Gibb, Z. G., & Devereux, P. G. (2014). Who does that anyway? Predictors and personality correlates of cyberbullying in college. Computers in Human Behavior, 38, 8–16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. chb.2014.05.009.

Goodboy, A. K., & Martin, M. M. (2015). The personality profile of a cyberbully: Examining the dark triad. Computers in Human Behavior, 49, 1–4. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.02.052.

Hall, J. R., & Benning, S. D. (2006). The “successful” psychopath: Adaptive and subclinical manifestations of psychopathy in the general population. In C. J. Patrick (Ed.), Handbook of psychopathy (pp. 459–478). Guilford.

Hardaker, C. (2010). Trolling in asynchronous computer-mediated communication: From user discussions to academic definitions. Journal of Politeness Research, 6, 215–242. https://doi.org/10.1515/ JPLR.2010.011.

Hare, R. D. (1998). Psychopathy, affect and behavior. In D. Cooke, A. Forth, & R. Hare (Eds.), Psychopathy: Theory, research and implications for society (pp. 105–137). Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Hare, R. D. (2003). Without conscience: The disturbing world of the psychopaths among us. Guilford.

Horton, R. S., Reid, C. A., Barber, J. M., Miracle, J., & Green, J. D. (2014). An experimental investigation of the influence of agentic and communal Facebook use on grandiose narcissism. Computers and Human Behavior, 35, 93–98. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2014.02.038.

Internet World Stats (2020). Internet usage statistics: World internet users and 2020 population stats. Retrieved from http://www.internetworldstats.com.

Kiesler, S. (1997). Culture of the internet. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Kircaburn, K., Jonason, P. K., & Griffiths, M. D. (2018). The Dark Tetrad traits and problematic online gaming: The mediating role of online gaming motives and moderating role of game types. Personality and Individual Differences, 135, 298–303. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2018.07.038.

Konrath, S. H., O’Brien, E. H., & Hsing, C. (2011). Changes in dispositional empathy in American college students over time: a meta-analysis. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 15, 180–198. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868310377395.

Lee, H. (2005). Behavioral strategies for dealing with flaming in an online forum. The Sociological Quarterly, 46, 385–403. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1533- 8525.2005.00017.x.

Lee, Z., & Salekin, R. T. (2010). Psychopathy in a noninstitutional sample: Differences in primary and secondary subtypes. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment, 1, 153–169. https://doi. org/10.1037/a0019269.

Lehmann, A., & Ittel, A. (2012). Aggressive behavior and measurement of psychopathy in female inmates of German prisons – a preliminary study. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 35, 190–197. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijlp.2012.02.007.

Li, S., Ding, D., Wu, Z., Yi, L., Lai, J., & Dang, L. (2020). Do high psychopaths care more about moral consequences than low psychopaths in Chinese culture? An exploration using the CNI model. Healthcare, 8, 505. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare8040505.

Lilienfeld, S. O., Latzman, R. D., Watts, A. L., Smith, S. F., & Dutton, K. (2014). Correlates of psychopathic personality traits in everyday life: Results from a large community survey. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 740. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00740.

Lyons, M., & Hughes, S. (2015). Malicious mouths? The Dark Triad and motivations for gossip. Personality and Individual Differences, 78, 1–4. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2015.01.009.

Mesch, G. S., & Talmud, I. (2020). Online communication and negative social ties. In I. Talmud & G. S. Mesch (Eds.), Wired youth (pp. 136–153). Routledge.

Milgram, S. (1963). Behavioral study of obedience. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 67, 371–378. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0040525.

Neumann, C. S., & Hare, R. D. (2008). Psychopathic traits in a large community sample: Links to violence, alcohol use, and intelligence. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 76, 893–913. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-006X.76.5.893.

Nicol, S. (2012). Cyber-bullying and trolling. Youth Studies Australia, 31, 3–4.

Obolenskaya, A. G., Rudenkin, D. V., Porozov, R. Y., & Blinova, O. A. (2018). Adolescent deviations, phenomenon of cyber-vandalism. Types. Prevention. The European Proceedings of Social & Behavioural Sciences, 45, 283–294. https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2018.09.33.

Pabian, S., De Backer, C. J., & Vandebosch, H. (2015). Dark Triad personality traits and adolescent cyber-aggression. Personality and Individual Differences, 75, 41–46. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid. 2014.11.015.

Park, S., Na, E., & Kim, E. (2014). The relationship between online activities, netiquette and cyberbullying. Children and Youth Services Review, 42, 74–81. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2014.04.002.

Paulhus, D. L., & Williams, K. M. (2002). The Dark Triad of personality: Narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. Journal of Research in Personality, 36, 556–563. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0092- 6566(02)00505-6.

Pastwa-Wojciechowska, B. (2013). Psychological and psychiatric aspects of psychopathy versus the practice of opinion-making in the law application process. Chowanna, 37, 137–156.

Pastwa-Wojciechowska, B. (2017). Personality disorders and the risk of violating legal norms – what we know about the complex nature of humans. Current Issues in Personality Psychology, 5, 183–195. https://doi.org/10.5114/cipp.2017.70143.

Perenc, L., & Radochoński, M. (2016). Prevalence of psychopathic traits in a large sample of Polish adolescents from rural and urban areas. Annals of Agricultural and Environmental Medicine, 23, 368–372. https://doi.org/10.5604/12321966.1203907.

Petrunik, M., & Weisman, R. (2005). Constructing Joseph Fredricks: Competing narratives of a child sex murderer. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 28, 75–96. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijlp. 2004.12.005.

Pyżalski, J. (2012). From cyberbullying to electronic aggression: Typology of the phenomenon. Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties, 17, 305–317. https://doi.org/10.1080/13632752.2012.704319.

Rogers, M., Smoak, N. D., & Liu, J. (2006). Self-reported deviant computer behavior: a Big-5, moral choice, and manipulative exploitive behavior analysis. Deviant Behavior, 27, 245–268. https://doi. org/10.1080/01639620600605333.

Ruggiero, G. M., Stapinski, L., Caselli, G., Fiore, F., Gallucci, M., Sassaroli, S., & Rapee, R. M. (2012). Beliefs over control and meta-worry interact with the effect of intolerance of uncertainty on worry. Personality and Individual Differences, 53, 224–230. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2012.03.016.

Seagrave, D., & Grisso, T. (2002). Adolescent development and the measurement of juvenile psychopathy. Law and Human Behavior, 26, 219–239. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1014696110850.

Seigfried-Spellar, K. C., Villacís-Vukadinović, N., & Lynam, D. R. (2017). Computer criminal behavior is related to psychopathy and other antisocial behavior. Journal of Criminal Justice, 51, 67–73. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2017.06.003.

Selwyn, N. (2008). A safe haven for misbehaving? An investigation of online misbehaviour among university students. Social Science Computer Review, 26, 446–465. https://doi.org/10.1177/0894439307313515.

Sest, N., & March, E. (2017). Constructing the cybertroll: Psychopathy, sadism, and empathy. Personality and Individual Differences, 119, 69–72. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2017.06.038.

Suler, J. (2004). The online disinhibition effect. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 7, 321–326. https://doi.org/ 10.1089/1094931041291295.

Stalans, L. J., & Donner, C. M. (2018). Explaining why cybercrime occurs: Criminological and psychological theories. In H. Jahankhani (Ed.), Cyber Criminology (pp. 25–45). Springer.

Sumner, C., Byers, A., Boochever, R., & Park, G. J. (2012). Predicting Dark Triad personality traits from Twitter usage and a linguistic analysis of tweets. Paper presented at the 11th International Conference on Machine Learning and Applications (ICMLA), Boca Raton, Florida. https://doi.org/10.1109/ ICMLA.2012.218.

Symantec (2015). Internet security threat report 2015 (Vol. 20). Retrieved from www.symantec.com.

Terry, C., & Cain, J. (2016). The emerging issue of digital empathy. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, 80, 58. https://doi.org/10.5688/ajpe80458.

Todd, P. (2014). Extreme mean: Trolls, bullies and predators online. Signal, McClelland & Stewart.

Trope, Y., & Liberman, N. (2010). Construal-level theory of psychological distance. Psychological Review, 117, 440–463. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0018963.

Tsai, J. L., & Levenson, R. W. (1997). Cultural influences on emotional responding: Chinese American and European American dating couples during interpersonal conflict. Journal of CrossCultural Psychology, 28, 600–625. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022197285006.

Tsakalidis, G., & Vergidis, K. (2019). A systematic approach toward description and classification of cybercrime incidents. IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics: Systems, 49, 710–729. https://doi.org/10.1109/TSMC.2017.2700495.

Williams, M. (2000). Virtually criminal: Discourse, deviance and anxiety within virtual communities. International Review of Law, Computers & Technology, 14, 95–104. https://doi.org/10.1080/13600860054935.

Withers, K. (2019). A psychosocial behavioral attribution model: Examining the relationship between the “Dark Triad” and cybercriminal behaviors impacting social networking sites. Doctoral dissertation. Nova Southeastern University. Retrieved from https://nsuworks.nova.edu/gscis_etd/1072.

Wright, M. F., Harper, B. D., & Wachs, S. (2019). The associations between cyberbullying and callousunemotional traits among adolescents: The moderating effect of online disinhibition. Personality and Individual Differences, 140, 41–45. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.paid.2018.04.001.

Downloads

Published

2022-12-06

How to Cite

Perenc, L. (2022). Psychopathic personality disorder and cybercriminality: an outline of the issue. Current Issues in Personality Psychology, 10(4), 253–264. Retrieved from https://czasopisma.bg.ug.edu.pl/index.php/CIiPP/article/view/7412

Issue

Section

Artykuły