Monsters of the Night

The word “psychopath” gives the impression of an unscrupulous character. Someone without any sense of shame, guilt or remorse. Someone who sees your inclination to trust as his or her personal playground. Someone profoundly amoral. And there is the growing feeling that psychopaths are everywhere around us. They are the neighbours who drag down property values with their tasteless landscaping and garish Christmas decorations. They are the coworkers who got ahead by throwing you, or someone you respect, under the metaphorical bus. They are the monsters of the night, dressed in human skins, on the prowl for an easy mark.

The portrayal of the psychopath as omnipresent bogeyman is a sore spot for Okanagan College and Simon Fraser University professors Jarkko Jalava, Stephanie Griffiths and Michael Maraun. In The Myth of the Born Criminal: Psychopathy, Neurobiology and the Creation of...