Section of Criminology and Forensic Psychiatry, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Policlinico Universitario, Bari, Italy.
Forensic Psychiatry Division, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience, Saint Louis University School of Medicine, Saint Louis, MO, USA.
Behav Sci Law. 2019 Sep;37(5):602-613. doi: 10.1002/bsl.2430. Epub 2019 Nov 24.
Over the years, the number of homicides in Italy has progressively decreased, ultimately becoming one of the lowest rates in Europe (357 = 0.7 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2017, according to ISTAT). The number of homicides committed by women was about 9% of the total number of homicides during our study period. The percentage has increased in recent years because the total number of homicides has decreased without a proportionate decrease in the number of female homicides. Indeed, murder is an unusual type of crime for a woman and is often associated with a mental disorder, so when a woman committed a homicide, a psychiatric assessment was often performed. A forensic psychiatry expert was assigned to investigate the offender's psychopathology and mental state at the time of the offense. The root causes of the crime remained unexplained, however, due to the lack of a psychiatric precedent to justify this kind of assessment. The role of psychopathy in homicide has seldom been studied in female offenders, even though psychopathy has an important role in violent crimes. The investigators examined, clinically and historically, a sample of women who committed murder with different levels of criminal responsibility (female homicide offenders found not guilty by reason of insanity, having partial criminal responsibility, and convicted as criminally responsible and sentenced to prison) to identify the prevalence of the psychopathic dimension and its possible role in this sample. Prevalence and degree of psychopathic traits were examined in these female offenders using the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised. This study showed that females who had committed homicide were likely to suffer from mental illness; most of the homicidal acts were committed impulsively; and most female homicides occurred within the family, especially among women who were psychotic, but less so if they were psychopathic. Psychopathy tended to co-occur more with personality disorders than with psychotic psychopathology. Psychopathy was more evident among female homicide offenders who had been abused or traumatized. Psychopathic women who killed had high factor F1 scores and low antisocial component of factor F2.
多年来，意大利的凶杀案数量逐渐减少，最终成为欧洲凶杀率最低的国家之一（根据意大利国家统计局（ISTAT）的数据，2017 年每 10 万人中有 357 人，即 0.7 人）。在我们的研究期间，女性凶杀案的数量约占凶杀案总数的 9%。近年来，这一比例有所上升，因为凶杀案总数有所下降，而女性凶杀案的数量却没有相应减少。事实上，谋杀对于女性来说是一种不常见的犯罪类型，通常与精神障碍有关，因此当女性实施凶杀时，通常会进行精神评估。一名法医精神病学专家被指派调查犯罪者在犯罪时的精神病理学和精神状态。然而，由于缺乏精神病学先例来证明这种评估的合理性，犯罪的根本原因仍未得到解释。尽管精神变态在暴力犯罪中起着重要作用，但女性犯罪者中的凶杀案中精神变态的作用很少被研究。研究人员从临床上和历史上研究了一组具有不同刑事责任水平的女性（因精神错乱而被判无罪的女性杀人凶手、部分刑事责任的女性杀人凶手、被判定为有刑事责任并被判入狱的女性杀人凶手），以确定精神变态维度的普遍性及其在该样本中的可能作用。使用修订后的精神变态检查表（Psychopathy Checklist-Revised）检查了这些女性犯罪者的精神变态特征的流行程度和严重程度。这项研究表明，实施杀人行为的女性可能患有精神疾病；大多数杀人行为是冲动行为；大多数女性凶杀案发生在家庭内部，尤其是在患有精神病的女性中，但如果女性是精神变态者，则较少发生。精神变态与人格障碍的共病多于与精神病理的共病。在遭受虐待或创伤的女性凶杀犯中，精神变态更为明显。有精神变态的女性凶杀犯的因子 F1 得分较高，而因子 F2 的反社会成分较低。
