# What type of criminal would this be in psychological terms?



## ironpony (Dec 25, 2016)

If anyone has any expertise in psychology, in my story, some people gave me their opinions that they were confused as to what psychological profile the villains would be. I wasn't sure, since I never gave the villains any psychological label. I came up with the idea of the villains, and what they were doing, and just went with it. But I never came up with any pyschological labels or classification, in which they would be.

My story is about several characters, who have had a hard time being accepted by society in various ways. Hard to keep relationship, or hard to hold down jobs, because of conditions that they have. One might be disfigured, one might be autistic, one might have schizophrenia, etc. Things like that.

So they all form a group, overtime as one meets the other, and they decide to strike back at members of society for all the lack of acceptance, and judgment, that they feel has been done to them. They will go out and kidnap women who they feel that they felt doesn't accept their kind, relationship wise, and they will rape the women, and perhaps even murder them to keep them from talking, as punishment. They will also go out and kidnap and get revenge on people, who they felt have bullied people like them for being different, or being disadvantaged.

I was told that they are not psychopaths I was told or sociopaths either from my research. So what classification, would they fall under... Thanks for any advice and input. I really appreciate it.


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## Ptolemy (Dec 25, 2016)

I'm no psychologist major but I believe they would fall under the case of psychopath. Also neither "sociopath" or "psychopath" are actually considered "psychological terms" they would fall under the "disorder" category.


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## ironpony (Dec 26, 2016)

Okay thanks.  Well I read that a psychopath is brought up to become that way through internal problems, such as their wiring and chemical balances, and that they are capable of well though out premeditated acts, with patients.  Where as sociopaths are created through external sources of problems, such as people doing wrong to them, but it causes them to snap and act out crimes out of snapping and out of temper, rather than being able to premeditate it.  So it seems that maybe what I have hear for my character is a hybrid... since the characters are brought to revenge by external sources, yet they premeditate their crimes.  But is a hybrid possible in the psychological/medical field?

Or have I created characters that are psychologically incorrect?  One example, might be Bruce Wayne in the movie Batman Begins.  Bruce Wayne brings a gun to court to take revenge on the murderer of his parents, and almost does so, when the murderer gets a lighter sentence.  So he is brought to revenge by an external source, yet he premeditates the crime?  So would that make him a sociopath?  However, me didn't premeditate it that well, and should have waited to kill him where no witnesses would see him obviously?  So maybe he was acting out of anger, cause of poor planning and that would mean he is a psychopath?  Or is he a hybrid, cause the source or revenge was external?


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## Ultraroel (Dec 26, 2016)

Does it really matter? In the end, people will categorize them however they read them..


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## SystemCheck (Dec 26, 2016)

Nowadays psychopath & sociopath are used interchangeably by the general public and sometimes people who study psychology. 


But what you described aren't psychopaths. The key fact of a psychopath is they lack of empathy / emotional attachment/response. 

Most psychopaths actually fit quite well into society. They are charming, confident, and manipulative. One could be your next door neighbor & you won't have a single clue until the cops are busting down the door in riot gear. That's what makes them the dangerous. The fact that they actually do _*lack*_ something, an actual conscience which means they have severely limited but often more _*no*_ actual human emotion. But a psychopath actually has emotional mimicry down to an art form. A psychopath, for example, will laugh along with everyone else in the theatre at a comical movie but they don't necessarily "understand" the "funny". This makes them even more dangerous. A psychopath will generally tear you apart with all the emotional response of you swatting a fly. 

Ted Bundy was a classic psychopath and was said to be such a charmer he could put an entire nunnery under his "spell".



What you actually described are sociopaths. The key fact to sociopaths is they suffer varying degrees of anti-social disorders. 

The ones that can't fit in, the ones that blame society because of their own faults or whatever. The ones that act the way they do, e.g. violently, because they grew up in such a setting and they believe it "normal". Or because they have mental / developmental problems that skew their responses. They, unlike their psychopathic brethren, actually possess emotional response. They are either explosive or their emotional behaviors stunted due to whatever issue (typically environmental) that shaped them. Out of the two a sociopath will get something, a "fix" if you would, out of tearing you apart. 

A number of people erroneously believe / say Jeff Dahmer was a psychopath but he was actually a classic sociopath because of his issues which made it difficult for him to fit into society.



The problem with your idea is both psychopaths and sociopaths are generally loners in their "work". Occasionally you'll get a pair of sociopaths working together. The best example of a sociopathic "group" would have once been the KKK and some of the more extreme Nazis. Rudolf Höss, for example, was actually a likely psychopath working with sociopaths for despite what he did he was "normal" in every other aspect of life. 

Both psychopaths and sociopaths _*can*_ _premeditate their crimes_. Psychopaths are just better known for this because they don't have the sociopath's issues. But where a psychopath "befriends" their victim the sociopath singles out the bully from high school.


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## ironpony (Dec 26, 2016)

Oh okay, thanks.  So my villains are more sociopaths then?  A couple of readers just really wanted to know since they said they didn't get what was going on with the villain, or get what they were, serial killer wise, they said.

Also, even though they pre-plan their crimes, they specifically target victims they do not have any history with.  That way, when the police investigate, they cannot connect any of the victims friends or acquaintances to the crimes.


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## SystemCheck (Dec 26, 2016)

ironpony said:


> Also, even though they pre-plan their crimes, they specifically target victims they do not have any history with. That way, when the police investigate, they cannot connect any of the victims friends or acquaintances to the crimes.



Hmm. Even the best serial killers have a set "target". Most of them, once they build their confidence in their killings, have a set way of killing people. That's their "calling card". It is why pegging murders done by a serial killer just starting off can be hard to associate with the serial killer he / she becomes as their technique, even target, can potentially change. 

Still, this defining "factor", is one of the things that separates a serial killer from a simple murdering nutjob.


That your characters pick targets unknown to them or unknown to one another is not terribly unusual among sociopaths or psychopaths. That there isn't some connection, for example every victim is a woman aged twenty to thirty-five, though doesn't necessarily work. Even if a serial killer changes his target he won't necessarily change the way in which he goes about doing the killing, how he treats the body, or gets rid of the evidence. That might be why your readers were asking for psychological clarification.


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## ironpony (Dec 27, 2016)

Okay thanks.  Well the victims could be people who bully and reject their types.  But they cannot choose people who have bullied them personally, cause otherwise the police will look to that in their investigations and they will then have suspects, who have a grudge against the victims.  By killing rejectors that they do not have any ties to, it removes the police looking for suspects with a grudge.  So they have to be smart and not kill people who they have had any past ties with.  So they can target specific, bullying, and rejecting types of people still though.

And yes they can leave a calling card, depending on what it would be.


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