Antisocial Behavior: Personality Disorders From Hostility to Homicide

• NCJ Number: 183636
• Author(s): Benjamin B. Wolman Ph.D.
• Date Published: 1999
• Length: 211 pages
• Sale Source: Prometheus Books
• Publication Format: Book (Softbound)
• Publication Type: Overview Text
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

After documenting the increasing incidence of sociopathic antisocial behavior, coupled with a general lack of societal concern and moral apathy, this book profiles sociopaths at various age levels and identifies the causes of sociopathy, followed by suggestions for preventing and combating sociopathy.

Abstract

The book notes that in 1963 the FBI reported 2,180 crimes per 100,000 population; whereas, 30 years later law enforcement agencies reported that crime had more than doubled to 5,463 cases per 100,000 population. The citing of these statistics is followed by a discussion of the spread of terrorist incidents throughout the world. The book then traces sociopathic behavior to a society that does not have strict moral standards backed up by consistent mass media support, arguing that a society that tolerates unethical behavior and does not offer persistent protection to peaceful citizens creates an ideal environment for sociopaths and antisocial behavior. The author notes that the essential feature of antisocial personality disorder is "a pattern of irresponsible and antisocial behavior beginning in childhood or early adolescence and continuing into adulthood." In describing sociopaths, he states that they believe that their actions are always justified and that they have the right to use force to get whatever they want. Sociopaths thus operate on the premise that friends should be used and adversaries destroyed. In detailing the causes of sociopathy, the book discusses genetics, mental disorders, the family's role, parental rejection, maternal deprivation, spousal abuse, child abuse, the teen subculture, the influence of television, and the deterioration of a culture that is based in moral principles reinforced by cultural conditioning. Three chapters discuss how the various causes of sociopathy can be countered by concerned collective action and moral education in the home, schools, churches, and other societal institutions. A 65-item bibliography and a subject index