Female Sociopaths - How They Differ From Male Sociopaths

Outline

The current paper is an attempt to explore how female sociopaths differ from their male counterparts. In this case, an attempt shall be made to assess whether male sociopaths presents with similar traits to those possessed by females, and whether it is easier to distinguish a male sociopath compared to a female sociopath.

Male and Female Sociopathy

There is very little research that has been carried out to determine the behavioral patterns of female psychopaths. Nonetheless, the little research that has been carried out indicates that there are three character tics that are portrayed by female sociopaths they are no different from those possessed by their male counterparts. These characteristics include the fact that female psychopaths enjoy exploiting and manipulating other people (especially male victims), and they have no empathy. In addition, they exhibit impulsive and violent behavior but not to the level of their male counterparts. However, this could make female psychopaths more dangerous due to the fact that they can easily integrate with other members of the society without being detected.

Schrum and Salekin (2006) carried out a research study on adolescent girls who had been incarcerated and they revealed some of the fundamental characteristics that best described female psychopaths. The researchers revealed that these girls tended to lack empathy, possessed a pretentious sense of worth, lacked empathy and were manipulative and conning. In addition, the young female psychopaths tended to engage in sexual relationships. The researchers also revealed that contrary to what was previously thought, female psychopaths lacked “shallow emotions”. Shallow emotions and impulsivity makes it very difficult for the ordinary individual to spot a female psychopath.

Women psychopaths pretend to care, and appear capable of intimacy and loving, but they are not. The depth of their commitment and intimacy are mere illusions. Female psychopaths are determined to get what they desire at all costs. Since they like feeling important, female psychopaths are capable of causing problems with the sole intention of getting noticed (Visser et al, 2010). They can also knowingly claim that they are yet to understand something so that they can have a justification for doing what they want to do. They are conniving and always try to create self-doubt in the minds of their victims. They appear very convincing to their victims and are more likely to be believed than they male counterparts.

Most of the research and studies on sociopathy have endeavored to examine personality traits incarcerated males, as opposed to that of women. This is mainly due to the fact that researchers are more likely to access adult prisoners with relative ease. Many of the prisoners are also males. On the other hand, undertaking a research study on sociopathy among male prisoners does not give us an idea of how the sociopaths behaved prior to their being incarcerated. At the same time, we are not able to determine whether similar research results would be replicated in studies involving women. There is not much research has been carried out on the issues of sociopathy in women and non-criminals.

A lot of the research carried out to investigate incidences of psychopathy has focused on predominantly male and predominantly Caucasian subjects. Although female psychopaths are characterized by lower base rate of psychopathy characteristics, nonetheless, a lot of research studies have documented the same behavioral and personality correlates (that is, criminal and aggressive behavior) in females and males with psychopathy (Kimonis et al, 2006).

Sadly, the research findings on affective and cognitive correlates of psychopathy appear somewhat inconsistent. For instance, incarcerated men high on psychopathy have manifested different cognitive responses perseveration deficits from those manifested by incarcerated women high on psychopathy. This is in spite of the fact that incarcerated women with high psychopathy characteristics have presented with the same abnormalities with regard to the act of presenting of threatening and unpleasant stimuli where a startle probe paradigm is used.

Visser and colleagues (2009) undertook a study to explore the link between physical attractiveness and psychopathy, appearance-related self-esteem, and various components of sexual behavior. The study consisted of a sample of 198 mixed-sex undergraduate students. The research findings indicated that there were considerable sex differences with regard to the psychopathy correlates. The study also revealed that psychopathy is linked with promiscuous sexual affairs and behavior among women and men. In the study, psychopathy in men was linked to low appearance anxiety, high self-related attractiveness, as well as low body shame. On the other hand, among the women, psychopathy was linked to high body shame and low self-esteem.

It is important to note that the differences between women and men with regard to body esteem variables and psychopathy had no link to any sex differences because there was no correlation between esteem variables and sexual behavior in both sexes.

Even in the corridors of justice, the courts and the public are also likely to show sympathy to female sociopaths, more than male sociopaths. This kind of attitude as portrayed by the courts is an indication that a lot of people are more likely to show sympathy towards female offenders and as such, excuse their behavior as well. At the same time, a larger number of male sociopaths are likely to feature in the news, in comparison with female sociopaths.

Perhaps this is the case because it is very difficult to distinguish female sociopaths as they are more conniving and manipulative than male sociopaths. At the same time, the trend by the courts to show sympathy towards female sociopaths and not male sociopaths is a case of hypocrisy and double standards because both are criminals by all standards and have committed a crime falling under the same category of sociopathy. It is only fair that they are penalized solely based on the crime committed; and without their gender difference creating a prejudice against them.

Conclusion

In summation, men are more likely to possess sociopathy characteristics in comparison with women. Also, a lot of research studies that have been carried out to detect the traits of psychopaths have mainly been carried out among incarcerated males mainly because they constitute the larger population of prisoners. Male sociopaths can appear to be more hallow that their female counterparts. For example, female sociopaths come across as less impulsive and angry in comparison with men and this may confuse us to think that they are not sociopaths, when indeed they are sociopaths. Courts and the general public also employ double standards when dealing with psychopaths whereby they are more inclined to show sympathy and leniency to female sociopaths, more that male sociopaths. At the same time, a number of studies have revealed that the traits of a sociopath differ based on sexual orientation. Nonetheless we need to note that even as women are less likely to perpetrate violence, if at all they possess traits of a sociopath, then we need to treat them as sociopaths, and not as females, to avoid discriminating their male counterparts.