Explain Why Most Researchers Believe Psychopaths Cannot Be Treated

question 15

Essay

Explain why most researchers believe psychopaths cannot be treated.Describe one well-known study that lends support for this notion.
This question would be worth 3 marks (1 mark for explaining why psychopaths are not believed to benefit from treatment,and 2 marks for describing Rice,Harris,and Cormier's (1992)study involving treatment outcomes of psychopaths).
-Psychopaths see nothing wrong with their behaviour,often don't feel anxiety or distress,and usually only participate in treatment when it is to their benefit.
-Rice,Harris,and Cormier (1992)conducted a study on violent psychopathic and nonpsychopathic forensic psychiatric patients to evaluate the effects of an intensive therapeutic treatment program.
-Patients were followed for 10 years after release.
-Untreated nonpsychopaths had a violent reoffending rate of 39%
-Treated nonpscyhopaths had a violent reoffending rate of 22%
-Untreated psychopaths had a violent reoffending rate of 55%
-Treated psychopaths had a violent reoffending rate of 77%
-These findings contributed to many clinicians concluding that psychopaths should not be treated as their recidivism rates are higher when this is attempted.

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