THE LANGUAGE OF PSYCHOPATHS: WARNING SIGNS FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT by Emily Smedley A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of George Mason University in Partial Fulfillment of The Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts Criminology, Law and Society Committee: Director Department Chairperson Dean, College of Humanities and Social Sciences Date: Spring Semester 2015 George Mason University Fairfax, VA The Language of Psychopaths: Warning Signs for Law Enforcement A Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in Criminology, Law and Society at George Mason University by Emily Smedley Bachelor of Arts Lynchburg College, 2012 Director: Cynthia Lum, Professor Criminology, Law and Society Spring Semester 2015 George Mason University Fairfax, VA This work is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noderivs 3.0 unported license. ii DEDICATION Most of the people to whom this thesis is dedicated will never read beyond this page, and that is okay because without them the pages that follow would never have been written. This is the most important page in my thesis as the existence of the previous pages and the pages that follow was entirely dependent on these people. This page is also the hardest to write. I procrastinated writing the dedication until the last minute because I couldn't figure out how to say thank you in a manner that seemed sufficient relative to the level of support I received. Writing this now I realize the reason I struggled is because I cannot say thank you in a manner that is in anyway equivalent. So instead I ask that they accept this dedication as one of the thanks you’s that I owe to them. Thank you, Mom; Thank you, Dad; Thank you, Curtis; Thank you, Adam. Go Team! iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Many thanks to Professor Lum, Professor Bamford, and Professor Gill. I would like to thank Professor Lum for being the chair of my thesis committee and for her tireless effort in the production of my thesis. I also wish to thank Professor Gill and Professor Bamford whom together complete my thesis committee. I thank all of my professors and peers at George Mason University for their unwavering support and for creating a challenging and rewarding academic environment. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page List of Tables .................................................................................................................... vii Abstract ............................................................................................................................ viii Chapter One ........................................................................................................................ 1 Characterization of Psychopaths ..................................................................................... 1 Diagnosing Psychopathy ................................................................................................. 4 Psychopath in the United States ...................................................................................... 5 Psychopaths, Crime, and Criminal Justice ...................................................................... 7 Recidivism Rates ............................................................................................................. 8 PCL-R Scores and Early Prison Release ......................................................................... 9 Treatment ........................................................................................................................ 9 Chapter TWO .................................................................................................................... 12 Statement of the Problem .............................................................................................. 12 The Language of Psychopaths....................................................................................... 14 Psychopaths and Affective Word Processing................................................................ 15 Psychopaths’ Sentence Completion Test ...................................................................... 17 Psychopaths and Word Triads Section One .................................................................. 18 Figurative Language ...................................................................................................... 20 Psychopaths and Figurative Language .......................................................................... 22 Psychopaths and Metaphors .......................................................................................... 23 Identifying Psychopaths Through Language Cues........................................................ 26 Research Question, Hypotheses and Objectives ........................................................... 29 Chapter THREE ................................................................................................................ 32 Sequential Exploratory Strategy.................................................................................... 33 Psychopath Sample ....................................................................................................... 36 Matched Pair Sample (Non-psychopaths) ..................................................................... 36 Interviews ...................................................................................................................... 38 v Data Collection .............................................................................................................. 39 Limitations .................................................................................................................... 41 Conclusions ................................................................................................................... 43 Chapter FOUR .................................................................................................................. 46 Description of Matched Pairs ........................................................................................ 47 Ted Bundy and Israel Keyes ...................................................................................... 47 John Wayne Gacy and Dennis Nilsen ....................................................................... 50 Diane Downs and Shaquan Duley ............................................................................. 53 Richard Kuklinski and Salvatore Gravano ................................................................ 56 Jeffrey MacDonald and Harold Shipman .................................................................. 59 Analysis of Matched Pairs............................................................................................. 61 Ted Bundy and Israel Keyes ...................................................................................... 61 John Wayne Gacy and Dennis Nilsen ....................................................................... 79 Diane Downs and Shaquan Duley ............................................................................. 91 Richard Kuklinski and Salvatore Gravano .............................................................. 105 Jeffrey MacDonald and Harold Shipman ................................................................ 130 Chapter FIVE .................................................................................................................. 144 Sample Summary and Discussion ............................................................................... 144 Implications for Practice ............................................................................................. 153 Interrogation ............................................................................................................ 154 Street Officer and Officer Safety ............................................................................. 157 Appendix A: Literary Devices ........................................................................................ 162 Appendix B: Sample information ................................................................................... 166 References ....................................................................................................................... 168 Biography ........................................................................................................................ 178 vi LIST OF TABLES Table Page Table 1: Verb Tense .......................................................................................................... 62 Table 2: Figures of Speech Part A .................................................................................... 75 Table 3: Figures of Speech Part B .................................................................................... 76 Table 4: Social Needs ....................................................................................................... 85 Table 5: Cause and Effect Words ..................................................................................... 95 Table 6: Speech Disfluencies Part A .............................................................................. 123 Table 7: Speech Disfluencies Part B ............................................................................... 124 Table 8: Speech Disfluencies Part C ............................................................................... 125 Table 9: Primal Needs ..................................................................................................... 137 vii ABSTRACT THE LANGUAGE OF