Summary Of Linda Mealey's Secondary Sociopath Theory

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In the study of juvenile offenders, there are many different theories as to the development of their personalities. In this paper, I will attempt to compare and contrast Linda Mealey’s Primary sociopath Theory and Secondary sociopath theory. First, Primary sociopath theory involves “Have inherited traits that predispose them to illegal behavior; that is, they have a genotype that predispose them to antisocial behavior.”(Bartollas,pp.47,2013) In turn this creates tendencies and hobbies that portray a track of sorts. This track consists of lack of neurons firing in the frontal cortex thus making individuals lack reasoning skills and impedes on their moral development. Another factor is correct chemical balances in the body and biochemists would …show more content…

Hare, a fellow colleague of Cleckley’s, states that there is a certain checklist in order diagnose someone as a psychopath. The list goes as follows; Conning and manipulativeness, lack of remorse or guilt, callousness and lack of empathy, lack of long term goals, impulsivity, and failure to accept responsibility for one’s actions. The second theory involved is the biosocial theory, which involves the interaction between the human organisms and the physical and social environment’s result in behavior. Raine argues that theories can include brain dysfunction, glucose metabolism, poor nutrition, and physiological reactivity. Raine also argues that measurements of biological indicators and observations of the social environment can be used to accurately predict if a child will commit a life of crime as they get older. …show more content…

Nevertheless, both theories do involve the idea of a “nature vs nurture” idea, however in the context of what I have tried to explain in thorough detail, the psychological theory that involves both the primary and secondary sociopathic theories, and the biosocial theory have two different types of correlations. In conclusion, primary and secondary sociopaths are compared by both environment, and biology due to the research being presented from the text, Juvenile Delinquency. In comparing Primary sociopaths and secondary sociopaths with biosocial theory, they both involve the true definition of biosocial theory; by involving both the environment and the