Preview

CJA 314 biological criminal behavior

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1487 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
CJA 314 biological criminal behavior
Biological Criminal Behavior
CJA/314

Biological Criminal Behavior
Andrea Yates had battled with postpartum depression for years and on June 20, 2001, she drowned all five children in the bathtub of her home. Ultimately the underlining cause of her actions was caused by postpartum psychosis that was triggered by Andrea’s improper use of her medication, failure to adhere to her doctor’s advice after treatment, and her lack of knowledge of coping techniques commonly used by women who suffer from postpartum depression. Postpartum depression can take up to a year after the birth of a child before the mother would even notice the signs of depression and in Yates’s case if left untreated can have a tragic affect on the person and everyone around him or her.
A psychopath is someone is has a mental disorder or display violent behaviors. A psychopath also has a personality order and loves to manipulate others, lacks empathy of others, emotionless, and fearless. There is nothing that scares them, there are four subtypes of psychopaths.
The first one is a Primary Psychopath, this type of psychopath does not care about punishment or disapproval, and they inhibit their antisocial impulses. A word that means the same to the normal person does not mean the same to him or her, they think very different from the way that normal people do, which is referred to as “semantic aphasia.” The Secondary Psychopaths, these types of psychopaths are not afraid to take risks of any kind, stress reactive, worry a lot, guilt-prone. These types of psychopaths worry more than the average person. A Secondary Psychopaths, are adventurous, and play by their own rules, they try to avoid pain and cannot resist temptation.
Distempered Psychopaths are those that go into a rage very quickly. This type does not usually happen with women, it is more of the men who it mainly happens to. The men who are distempered psychopaths have a high sex drive and get a high off excitement. Charismatic



References: Andrea Yates Biography. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.biography.com/people/andrea-yates-235801 Lilenfeld, O. (11, 28 2007). What "psychopath" means. Retrieved from http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm McLellan, F. (12/02/2006). Mental Health and justice: the case of Andrea Yates. Lancet, 368(9551), 1951-1954. doi:10.1016/S014-6736(06)69789-4 Ramsland, K. (2012). Andrea Yates: Ill or Evil?. Retrieved from http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/women/andrea_yates/index.html Resnick, P. J. (MD). (November 5, 2011). The Andrea Yates Case: Insanity on Trial [Video podcast]. YouTube. Retrieved from http://youtube.com/watch?v=dCnUIQtYN0 What is a psychopath. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.rexxfield.com/define-sociopath

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    A psychopath is a psychotic mental illness. Someone who is suffering from this mental illness has a reduced or is lacking empathy towards others. They are usually seen as very anti-social. It is a personality disorder which can be defined as “patterns of behaviour, mood, social interaction, and impulsiveness that cause distress to one experiencing them, as well as to other people in their lives.” (Personality Disorders) It can effect a persons daily life as they may feel like they do not belong in society. They can also feel left out in situations where others may be feeling empathy or sadness that someone suffering from the disease may not feel.…

    • 774 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Minds on Trial Uss Iowa

    • 687 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Cited: Ewing, C., and McCann, J. (2006). Minds on trial: Great cases in law and psychology. NY: Oxford University. pp. 129-139.…

    • 687 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    After Andrea's first pregnancy, in 1994, she started experiencing postpartum depression. She experienced hallucinations and a striking vision of a knife and her stabbing someone. She never revealed this to anyone until after her arrest, when she told her husband, Rusty. As research shows, postpartum depressed or psychotic women often feel ashamed or embarrassed to admit to others their thoughts about harming their infants. (Lavendera , 2002) When Andrea became pregnant a second time in 1995, she gave up swimming and jogging and also saw less of her friends. During this time Andrea, like many psychotic patients, learned to live with her condition and also learned to hide her symptoms because of shame and embarrassment. On June 16, 1999, Andrea called Rusty at work, sobbing and hysterical. He returned to find her shaking uncontrollably and biting her fingers. Rusty took Andrea to her parents' home that evening. The next day, while Andrea's mother was napping and Rusty was out doing errands, she attempted suicide by taking forty pills of her mother's antidepressant medication. An unconscious Andrea was rushed by ambulance to Methodist Hospital. Andrea did not like taking the medication, however, and her condition only worsened. She would stay in bed all day and self-mutilate. At one point, she scratched four bald patches on her scalp, picked sores in her nose, and obsessively scraped "score marks" on her legs and arms. Later, she would tell psychiatrists that during this time, she saw visions and heard voices, telling her to get a knife. She also watched a person being stabbed,…

    • 893 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Andrea Yates Paper

    • 1212 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Ruiz, R. (2006). The Andrea Yates Case. Houston Chronicle.com. Retrieved August 21, 2006 from http:// proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=5&sid=2&srchmode=1&vinst=PROD&...…

    • 1212 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Andrea Yates Insanity

    • 679 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Saeed had been responsible for treating Andrea’s condition. One of the first mistakes De. Saeed had made was taking Andrea off medication that was helping her most, Haldol. Another mistake that had been made by a different psychiatrist, Dr. Eileen Starbranch, was mixing her medication together to try an “emergency injection” which caused immediate affects, that were not appropriate for her case. If that does not cut it, another psychiatrist, Dr. James Thomas, had known that she attempted suicide, and cannot be sane after the short amount of time she was on medication and in institutions. Andrea’s psychiatrists should have realized she was a very unfit mother, no matter what, and could not be cured as fast as they said. They knew all about her condition, even about her experiencing voices and visions. As professionals they should have realized she had serious problems and was not fit to be around her children any time…

    • 679 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Approximately 840 students at Harvard University may be psychopathic; a shocking suggestion, but one that is tackled by psychologist and former Harvard professor Martha Stout in her book The Sociopath Next Door. Stout suggests that up to 4% of the population meets the diagnostic criteria of ‘sociopath.’ Colloquially, the term ‘psycho’ is often used, but its actual meaning includes several specific traits: a failure to conform to social norms, impulsivity and indifference to name a few. In the simplest of terms, psychopaths lack conscience. It is generally agreed that psychopathy and sociopathy are synonymous terms and are referred to in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) as Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD).…

    • 1013 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Zolovska B., & Bursztajn, H.J. (2005). "Are you therealone?" The unspeakable crime of Andrea YatesThe American Journal of Psychiatry, 162(4), 821-822. Retrieved October 13, 2011, from ProQuest Health and Medical Complete. (Document ID: 825414161).…

    • 955 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    This paper will include what the insanity statutes are in Ohio, the state that I live in. I will also talk about how often the insanity defense is used in the United States. As well as how successful this defense is. I will also discuss if psychologists should give their ultimate opinion in regards to sanity cases as well as the ethical issues that may rise from their opinions. Lastly, I will discuss how difficult it is to provide adequate psychological care for mentally ill patients while they are incarcerated in prison. The care they would have received had they been institutionalized in a mental hospital instead would have resulted in fewer deaths.…

    • 1349 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    What do we think about when we hear the word psychopath? Majority of us jump quickly to someone who is crazy, someone who we would never think to come across. A psychopath can be anyone from a neighbor, someone you love, to a homeless person according to (psychopathic killers hide in plain sight).…

    • 381 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Harris, M. (2013, January 14). Insanity plea repeated. In The Baltimore Sun . Retrieved March…

    • 1668 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Best Essays

    Bibliography: Freeman, K. (1998, October). Mental Health and the Criminal Justice System . (N. B. Research, Producer) Retrieved May 15, 2013 from http://www.lawlink.nsw.gov.au/lawlink/bocsar/ll_bocsar.nsf/vwFiles/cjb38.pdf/$file/cjb38.pdf…

    • 3560 Words
    • 15 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    Goodman will continue to experience difficulty in working with Mr. Brooks. Inpatient hospitalization would be the best environment for determining the underlying cause of Mr. Brooks’ psychiatric symptoms. Therefore, should the Court find the defendant incompetent to stand trial, it is this evaluator’s recommendation that inpatient hospitalization be provided for treatment of his mental disorder and restoration to trial competence. Access to medical screening, psychological testing, and clinical interviews allows for comprehensive evaluations by a variety of professionals, including psychiatrists, psychologists, neurologists, nursing staff, and rehabilitation staff. Once assessed in an inpatient setting, the prognosis for improvement will be clearer and the most appropriate treatment plan can be…

    • 506 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Iago In Othello

    • 1152 Words
    • 5 Pages

    A psychopath is defined as “a person with a psychopathic personality, which manifests as amoral and antisocial behavior, lack of ability to love or…

    • 1152 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sociopath Vs Psychopaths

    • 616 Words
    • 3 Pages

    psychopaths and sociopaths both stem from antisocial personality disorder. “Antisocial personality disorder (APD) is a clinical diagnosis that includes both psychopaths and sociopaths as antisocial personality types.”(www.http://depressiond.com) This being the case,it often confuses people on their characteristics. Psychopaths and sociopaths are integrated in society to a certain extent which leaves no true definition in a person's mind. Both disorders are similar in some aspects but do have some distinct differances. Understanding these two mental disorders, allows society to make a clear distiction.…

    • 616 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A sociopath shows no feelings or emotions. They don’t laugh, cry, or get angry. They live in their own world and have their own morals. They think they are not accountable to anyone and a lack of feelings for others allows them to ignore responsibility and then placing the blame on others. Sociopaths are a fake, and so are their promises.…

    • 782 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays