1. Failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful
behaviors. In other words,
criminality.
2. Deceitfulness. In other words,
repeated lying.
3. Impulsivity, or failure to plan ahead.
So, acting without thinking.
4. Irritability and aggressiveness as indicated by repeated physical
fights or assaults.
5. Reckless disregard for the safety of others.
And several others.
And the person has to be at least 18 years old,
and there's evidence of a conduct disorder before age 15. So as I was saying, these people have an
early onset with misbehavior of their conduct prior to age 15. I've certainly talked to mothers of
anti-social men, who say, "Even by age two (2) my child was misbehaving." And you think, what would that be at age
two? How would a 2 year old
misbehave? But these mothers say, "You
know, there was something different about that kid." And certainly when they're a little older and
capable of lying, they're doing that, or getting into fights with their
friends, or something of this nature.
So you get the idea that this is, as I said, "Recurrent misbehavior over time." I've also used the phrase "Recurrent serial
misbehavior." Because if you watch these
people, if you follow them around, for example let's say if you had a mini-cam
watching them, most of the time their behavior is just fine -- probably no
different from yours or mine. But on a
regular basis they're going to be getting into trouble with someone, being
irresponsible, committing a crime, lying about that crime, or something
else. So there's this misbehavior over
time.
Rob Kall: OK. Now, you've mentioned that this is a Men's
disease. That it's like 8-1 men to
women?
Donald Black: It depends
on the study. but that's a figure that I use.
Interestingly, I did a study of anti-social personalty disorder in a
local prison. I'm a consultant for the
correctional system here in Iowa, and I found that the prevalence, that is the
percent of men and women having this condition, was about equal. So in certain populations it may be about
equal; in the general population, it's really a man's disorder.
This was interesting, because I said that in the
first edition when it came out in 1999; and I had letters, and later, emails,
from people who essentially said I was sexist, and I need to talk about the
female anti-social. So I made certain in
the 2nd edition to talk about the female sociopath (or anti-social),
and to point out that they are there -- there are fewer of them, and we don't
know exactly why. It could be genetic,
it could be partly cultural, it could be partly definitional, we don't really
know. But there are women anti-socials
out there, and I discuss some of the differences that they have with male
anti-socials, and I mention a few popular cases in the news.
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