ABSTRACT
Research on psychopathy has largely focused on biological correlates; yet social and environmental influences are a notable and important field of inquiry, especially because genetics research has demonstrated about half of the variance in psychopathy is explained by environmental factors. Indeed, understanding social risk factors is complimentary to biological and psychological disciplines as the three share much overlap. For instance, a child who has an antisocial parent who becomes incarcerated for a violent crime may be genetically vulnerable to develop antisocial psychopathic traits. This biological vulnerability coupled with the influence of having a parent incarcerated may spur the development of psychopathic traits, as parental incarceration has been shown to influence several risk factors for psychopathy, such as inhibiting the development of empathy and attachment, as well as increasing economic hardship and being placed in care. This single circumstance highlights the importance of a person-centered approach to understanding the development and correlates of psychopathy (Andershed, 2010). So far, this book has explored the role of genetics and the environment in the development of psychopathy, as well as biological and psychological risk factors. This chapter covers the main areas of research on social risk factors for psychopathic traits, drawing from research examining social risk during pregnancy into adulthood. First, a review will be conducted on the influence of prenatal and postnatal risk factors, dietary deficits, exposure to neurotoxins and poverty for predicting psychopathic traits in childhood and adolescence. Next, we shall explore the role of relationships including parenting and attachment styles, the influence of childhood maltreatment, antisocial parents, delinquent peers, and exposure to violence in the home and in the community. Collectively, these social risk factors contribute to the development of psychopathy, and interact with biological and psychological risk factors to differentiate developmental pathways of psychopathic traits.
