Citation

Meloy JR. Bull. Menninger Clin. 2002; 66(3): 273-289.

Affiliation

Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, USA. jrmeloy@san.rr.com

Copyright

(Copyright © 2002, Guilford Publications)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

12448631

Abstract

The relationship between psychopathy and sexual offending has been empirically established, but it is little understood. The author proposes nine explanations to provide a conceptual basis for this empirical relationship: (1) search polygyny, (2) callousness and a lack of empathy, (3) a lack of attachment or bonding, (4) sensation seeking as a product of chronic cortical underarousal, (5) grandiosity, (6) entitlement, (7) a predominance of part-object relations, (8) a high frequency of predatory violence, and (9) the leaving by consensual sex partners when the psychopathy is identified. These explanations, constructed from anthropological, psychobiological, attachment, psychoanalytic, and aggression research, find some direct and indirect empirical support in the extant literature. They contribute to understanding the "polymorphously perverse" sexuality of the psychopath.

Language: en