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This paper aims to provide a critical review of the psychopathy literature, with a particular focus on recent research examining the relationship between psychopathy and various forms of criminal behaviour.

The authors provide an overview of the studies conducted to date. To identify relevant published studies for this review, literature searches were completed using Web of Science, Scopus, PsychINFO, and PubMed.

Substantial empirical research exists to suggest that psychopathy is a robust predictor of criminal behaviour and recidivism. Furthermore, considerable support for the assertion that the violence perpetrated by psychopathic offenders is more instrumental than the violence committed by other offenders was found. In addition, some research suggests that the greater use of instrumental violence among psychopathic offenders may be due to the interpersonal/affective traits of psychopathy, and not the impulsive/antisocial traits.

The current paper is the first to provide an in‐depth review of the literature examining the association between psychopathy and criminal offending with a particular focus on violent and homicidal behaviour.

Life‐long trauma histories and PTSD symptoms in 26 life sentence prisoners detained in a British Category B prison were examined. Prisoners were categorised on the basis of whether index offence violence resulted in human fatality, and whether reactive or instrumental violence was used in the index offence. Symptom measures included the Impact of Events Scale ‐ Revised and the Posttraumatic Stress Diagnostic Scale. Eight prisoners (31%) met all DSM‐IV criteria for current PTSD diagnosis. Partial PTSD was common in the remaining prisoners. Number of PTSD symptoms was unrelated to both the act of killing and the nature of violence. The rate of trauma prior to index offences was positively related to intrusive, avoidant and hyperarousal symptoms attributed by the prisoners to their index offence. The results suggest that prior trauma sensitised prisoners' traumatic reactions to their offences.

Early clinical accounts of psychopathy suggest important relationships between alcohol use and psychopathic traits that lead to fantastic and uninviting behavior. In particular, alcohol was thought to facilitate antisocial behavior, including violence, among psychopathic individuals. The purpose of this paper is to report a review of studies that concurrently examine psychopathy and alcohol in relation to violent behavior.

The authors searched electronic databases (PsycInfo, PUBMED) for all published studies between January 1960 and October 2016 that included the combination of alcohol and psychopathy, antisocial personality and violence, aggression.

The evidence converges to indicate that, in college and community samples, self-reported antisocial lifestyle traits interact with alcohol use to predict violence beyond that accounted for by either construct. However, in correctional and clinical samples, there is no evidence that the use of alcohol increases violence for individuals high in clinically measured antisocial lifestyle traits.

This is the first review of the empirical literature on relationships among psychopathy, alcohol, and violence. The authors provide recommendations for future research designed to fill gaps in the literature and lead to a greater understanding of the interplay among these variables.

The purpose of this paper is to use nearly a century’s worth of gang research to inform us about modern terrorist groups, specifically the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

A case study approach is employed, comparing and contrasting the competing theoretical frameworks of gangs and terrorist organisations to understand group structure, demographics, patterns of behaviour (e.g. territoriality, strategic, and instrumental violence), goals, and membership patterns of ISIS.

The qualitative differences of ISIS make them more comparable to street gangs than other terrorist groups.

ISIS, while being qualitatively different from other terrorist groups, actually has many similarities with street gangs allowing for the adaptation of effective gang prevention, intervention, and suppression strategies. This paper highlights how the expansive literature on street gangs is able to inform practical interventions to directly target ISIS and deradicalise potential recruits. By introducing a gang-terror nexus on the crime-terror continuum, this paper provides a useful perspective on the decentralised but dynamic nature of modern era insurgencies. This paper urges similar case studies of terrorist organisations to determine the extent to which they conform to street gang characteristics.

Terrorist groups are often compared to street gangs, yet it has not been until the last few years that gang researchers (Curry, 2011; Decker and Pyrooz, 2011, 2015a, b) have begun to compare and contrast these two deviant group archetypes. The goal of this paper is to use nearly a hundred years of gang research to better equip scholars and practitioners with a broader understanding of terrorism and insurgency in the era of globalisation by presenting a case study of ISIS using a street gang perspective.

We examine why some groups use violence while others use nonviolence when they push for major political change. Nonviolence can be less costly, but nonstate actors must mobilize a large number of people for it to be successful. This is less critical for violent rebellion, as successful attacks can be committed by a small number of people. This means that groups that believe that they have the potential to mobilize larger numbers of people are less likely to use violence. This potential is related to the lines along which the group mobilizes. Campaigns mobilized along ethnic or Marxist lines have fewer potential members and are most likely to use violence. Prodemocracy campaigns have a higher number of potential members and are more likely to use nonviolence. For movements against a foreign occupation, campaigns in larger countries are more likely to use nonviolence. These predictions are supported in a multilevel logit model of campaigns from 1945 to 2006. The mechanism is tested by looking at the interactive effect of democratic changes on the likelihood of nonviolence and looking at a subsample of 72 campaigns that explicitly draw from certain ethnic or religious groups.

The purpose of this paper is to present a preliminary study exploring the perception of prison officers in England and Wales regarding violence in their workplace.

Data were gathered through questionnaires administered to 152 of Her Majesty’s Prison establishments throughout England and Wales, ranging from high secure to open prisons where officers are affiliated to the Prison Officers Association. In total, 45 officers responded, seven from women’s prisons and the remainder from male adult and youth prisons. In addition, descriptive data from the Ministry of Justice statistical data set on incidents of violence are incorporated where possible.

Results indicated that violence, both prisoner on staff and prisoner-to-prisoner, is a major concern among prison officers, across all prison categories. The prison officers who took part considered there to be an absence of what they perceived to be serious measures to prevent and manage violence. Officers view the prison disciplinary system as ineffective, with reluctance for external charges to be considered against prisoners committing acts of violence within the prison.

The research is limited by a lack of external measures being obtained (e.g. observation of aggressive incidents) and the fact that the participants were self-selecting, with only a small proportion of respondents. However, it suggests a need for more detailed research into prison violence, one that integrates the views of prison staff as well as prisoners, with the former lacking in the research base to date. It also indicates a need for more focussed action from management, staff representatives and reform lobbies to explore collectively how to prevent violence in prison. Only by adopting a multidisciplinary and multifaceted approach can a comprehensive attempt at management be achieved.

Prison violence has a negative impact on correctional settings and their mission to provide a safe working environment for staff and safe environment for prisoners. Consequently, a focussed management approach on the problem is required, one that captures the view of a range of staff and prisoners. Prisoner’s violent conduct, whether assault on staff or peers, constitutes further criminal conduct. This has to be addressed through formal processes such as prison reports, police charges and potential prosecution. The latter has been under-applied. Determining the barriers to pursuing police charges and possible prosecution would be valuable to pursue. Violence against staff needs to be more thoroughly understood and not considered solely as an occupational hazard, but as a means of safe-guarding both staff and prisoners.

This study is the first that has sought to incorporate prison workforce perception on the problem of escalating levels of prison violence, using a sample from a wide set of prison environments.

This article examines a range of issues associated with gangs in incarcerated settings. We begin by examining the similarities and differences between street and prison gangs, and differentiating them from other types of criminal groups. Next, we focus on the emergence and growth of gangs in prison, including patterns and theoretical explanations. Importantly, we draw theoretical linkages between differing perspectives on gang emergence and gang violence. We also present administrative and official responses to gangs in prison. Finally, we discuss the movement from prison to the street, examining the difficulties that former prisoners face when re‐entering communities.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between resting heart rate (RHR) and psychopathy. The literature on heart rate vs criminality (including violence) is quite clear; low RHR is associated with engaging in violent and criminal behavior. However, results are not as consistent for psychopathy.

This paper analyzes heart rate measured at ages 18 and 48, and psychopathy at age 48, in the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development (CSDD). The CSDD is a prospective longitudinal study that has followed 411 boys from childhood to middle age, and measured social and biological factors of interest to the field of criminal psychology.

Interestingly, it was only heart rate at age 18 that was negatively and significantly related to psychopathy at age 48. No trends or relationships were found between heart rate at age 48 and psychopathy at age 48. The findings do, however, indicate that low heart rate at age 18 predicts psychopathy at age 48, and the strongest negative relationships are found between low heart rate (beats per minute) and impulsive and antisocial psychopathic symptoms.

This is the first ever longitudinal study showing that low RHR predicts later psychopathy. Suggestions for future research are outlined.