Journal of Forensic Psychology

Abstract

Moral Depravity: Going Beyond Just an Attribute of Psychopathy

Mitchell Rae Spezzaferri*, Gary Collins, Jenny E Aguilar and Anne-Marie Larsen

Moral depravity is a voluntary violation of morals, values, customs, or manners leading to an aberrant style of personality commonly known as antisocial psychopathy. This study intends to dive deeper, examining moral depravity as more than just an attribute of the psychopathic individual, but rather, the key component to their evolution of psychopathic traits. Through case studies, large group samples, and assessment, the literature has examined the moral upbringing, cognitive reinforcement and relevant theories to investigate how extensively morality affects an individual’s emotional and social development. The literature further examines neurobiological correlates between morality and psychopathy thanks to the advancement of neuroimaging technology within the decade. Throughout, researchers and psychologists found specific links between key brain structures of the prefrontal cortex and amygdala to moral emotion processing, moral development, as well as psychopathic traits. Because the correlates between these brain structures overlap, future research, specifically neurobiological research, should investigate how moral depravity affects the etiology of psychopathic traits in antisocial individuals.