Psychopathy And Violence In Schools Essay

When enrolling into a new school district, students are mandated by law to certify that they have met the health immunization and physical examination requirements prior to admittance. Vaccine administrations are preconditions to enrollment and are imperative to ensuring the health of both the vaccine recipient and the surrounding students by corralling the spread of disease. Threat of a school-wide epidemic is thereby reduced by diminishing the risk of further contagion to others. However, despite there being regulations in regards to protecting physical health, regulations protecting mental health are virtually nonexistent in schools today. Students afflicted with mental illnesses continue to camouflage in the hallways of middle and high schools across America without receiving professional help. Psychopathy, in particular, is a mental illness that, in extreme cases, claims victim in not only its occupant, but in the surrounding individuals subject to the psychopath’s violent behaviors. In order to protect the lives of innocent students from human
collateral, schools throughout the country must require tests for psychopathy before admission.
It is not rare for a psychopath to haphazardly engage in violent or aggressive behavior, consequently putting numerous lives in danger. Psychopathy, an extremely serious mental disorder, is characterized by distinct elements of severe emotional detachment and antisocial behavior. These characteristics are primarily attributed to impairing mental and social capabilities, and provide evidence for why those affected by these disabilities may instigate disastrous incidents. Although unproven, Columbine school shooter, Eric Harris, seemed to be the prototypical psychopath - cunningly manipulative, evidently lacking empathy, and charismatic to satisfy his own agenda. Yet his psychopathic tendencies were left unidentified, causing the accumulation of his anger and the ultimate act of explosive violence on his peers. According to an observational study on 2,867 juvenile subjects conducted through the American Psychological Association, a justifiable link between violent criminal recidivism and psychopathy was made evident, acquiring a correlation coefficient (the numerical significance of how closely the two items are related) of .26 (Edens et al. 2007). Although the correlation between the two variables does not substantiate a cause and effect relationship, the association between psychopathy and violent recidivism can not be ignored and is statistically significant enough to generate conclusions regarding the threat of allowing unidentified psychopaths to freely roam school hallways. Furthermore, the exponential upsurge of gun violence in schools within the last two decades leaves unanswered questions as to how this violence can be prevented. Testing for psychopathic attributes before admittance into any public or private institution significantly decreases the possibility of a mentally unstable student spontaneously launching a rampage.
It is challenging to differentiate between adolescents who are merely immature and those who are truly dangerous, as some of the telling characteristics of psychopathy - “impulsivity”, “irresponsibility”, and “proneness to boredom” - are prominent in both developing adolescents and psychopaths (Cauffman et al). The American Psychological Association found that because of a psychopath’s “affective deficit,” they are “uninhibited from acting on any given urge,” and it was determined that when “serious criminal tendencies do emerge in the psychopath, they gain ready expression” (Skeem et al. 2010). This is especially true in juveniles with higher levels of impulsivity and irresponsibility. The majority of tests today differentiate between these groups by evaluating singularly for psychopathy; they disregard the age group, which causes unfavorably distorted results when used on juveniles. However, the “Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version” (PCL-YV) does an exemplary job of concentrating its criterion to the younger age group, with testers scoring an average of 16 on a scale where 30 is the threshold for psychopathy identification (Cauffman et al). Additionally, the PCL-YV is commonly used by courts when assessing juvenile offenders for punishment and is able to accurately predict short term violence. If used in the correct manner, the PCL-YV may be the key to unlocking a safer school. It is for this reason that administration of the PCL-YV be mandatory for students prior to enrollment. It is a school’s responsibility to guarantee the highest standards of safety for its students. The PCL-YV is a credible way to distinguish between those with aggressive and disconcerting behaviors from those who pose no serious threat to the population. By administering this test, it would prohibit the mixing of those who are strongly afflicted with psychopathy with innocent students, thereby diminishing the possibility of human collateral. What mother would be content knowing that an identified psychopath could be sitting in the same classroom as her child? Despite this fact, some argue that the optimal way to prevent human collateral from mental illnesses is to treat the problem at its source and to provide professional treatment to those affected by the disorder while still allowing them to attend school. In response to the gun violence at Sandy Hook Elementary, in January of 2013, President Obama invested $500 million to expand access to mental health treatment across the country (The White House). Yet this solution does nothing to diminish the present threat from unidentified psychopathic students. Furthermore, there is unquestionably no legitimate “cure” for psychopathy. There exists no such pill that can reverse the genetic makeup of an individual to adequately instill empathy or a therapist that can effectively persuade a careless mind to feel remorse. However, education should not be refused to any person. To ensure the safety of the student body without revoking a fundamental right, the initial enrollment of identified psychopaths should be postponed until completion of substantial therapy; further examination should be completed by a psychiatrist who deems it appropriate for the aforementioned psychopath to be innocuous in the school setting. Therefore, the decision to postpone enrollment to those who test high enough on the PCL-YV is the most beneficial decision for the student body.
The implementation of psychopathy tests, specifically the PCL-YV, before admittance into schools is imperative for school security.
If a school district takes it upon itself to regulate the physical health of the students in which it encompasses, it is also responsible for regulating mental health to create a safer school environment. The correlation between psychopathy and violence contributes to the rising rates of human collateral within the school system, but can be effectively combatted with the implementation of the PCL-YV, delayed enrollment of those identified as psychopaths, and required completion of therapy. Psychopathic tendencies, and the resulting violence that spurs from them, need to be effectively combatted and successfully suppressed in the school system to not only ensure the physical safety of the entire student body, but to also secure the mental health of the
students.++++++++++++