IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v17y2020i14p4968-d382652.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Promoting a Safe Environment in Our Cities: Towards a Theoretical Model of “Moral Deficit” for Appropriate Psychopathic Therapy

Author

Listed:
  • David Coldwell

    (School of Business Sciences, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 2050, South Africa)

  • Sarah Coldwell

    (Welfare Services, Electrical Industries Charity in London, London SW19 8SE, UK)

Abstract

The increasing reported incidents of knife crime in cities and the release on parole of “rehabilitated” violent criminals are creating an unsafe urban environment. Such occurrences suggest that measures taken to address psychopathic-oriented behaviour may have been ineffective because the individual’s degree of “moral deficit” is not fully accounted for in the application of specific therapies. This study developed a theoretical model of “moral deficit” that is aligned with the appropriateness of therapy, ranging from the extreme “classical approach” of total confinement justified by a belief in the incurability of psychopaths to the modern therapy that aims to reintegrate the psychopath with society using “moralizing therapy”. Analysis of secondary data from extant literature was used to develop the theoretical model of “moral deficit”. Secondary data analysis suggests that the extent of psychopathic “moral deficit” may be an important factor in the selection of appropriate therapeutic measures for psychopathy treatment and the rehabilitation of psychopaths as law-abiding members of society. We conclude that a specific type of psychopathic moral deficit may have an important bearing on the appropriateness of treatment. It is recommended that the treatment of psychopathy makes greater provision for the extent and type of psychopathic “moral deficit” in assessing the most appropriate applications for the treatment of psychopathy and promoting the safety of urban environments.

Suggested Citation

  • David Coldwell & Sarah Coldwell, 2020. "Promoting a Safe Environment in Our Cities: Towards a Theoretical Model of “Moral Deficit” for Appropriate Psychopathic Therapy," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(14), pages 1-16, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:14:p:4968-:d:382652
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/14/4968/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/14/4968/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stinchcombe, Arthur L., 2005. "The Logic of Social Research," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, edition 1, number 9780226774916, December.
    2. Petya Kozhuharova & Hannah Dickson & John Tully & Nigel Blackwood, 2019. "Impaired processing of threat in psychopathy: A systematic review and meta-analysis of factorial data in male offender populations," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(10), pages 1-17, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Stephanie Decker & Matthias Kipping & R. Daniel Wadhwani, 2015. "New business histories! Plurality in business history research methods," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 57(1), pages 30-40, January.
    2. Faulconbridge, James R. & Muzio, Daniel, 2021. "Valuation devices and the dynamic legitimacy-performativity nexus: The case of PEP in the English legal profession," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    3. Ki-Shik Lee, 2006. "Copyright Behavior Analysis of the Public Officials, Researchers and University Students in Korea: Empirical Investigation of the Theory of Planned Behavior," International Review of Public Administration, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(2), pages 103-118, January.
    4. Sandeep D. Pillai & Brent Goldfarb & David A. Kirsch, 2020. "The origins of firm strategy: Learning by economic experimentation and strategic pivots in the early automobile industry," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(3), pages 369-399, March.
    5. Cisneros, Luis & Deschamps, Bérangère & Chirita, Gabriel M. & Geindre, Sébastien, 2022. "Successful family firm succession: Transferring external social capital to a shared-leadership team of siblings," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 13(3).
    6. Pierpaolo Andriani & Renata Kaminska, 2020. "Exploring the dynamics of novelty production through exaptation: a historical analysis of coal tar-based innovations," Post-Print halshs-03070325, HAL.
    7. Rachida Aïssaoui, 2022. "Actors and Resources in the Deinstitutionalization and Reproduction of Educational Inequalities: A Comparative Historical Analysis," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(6), pages 1386-1421, September.
    8. Stefan Timmermans & Pamela J. Prickett, 2023. "The Social Autopsy," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 52(4), pages 1681-1706, November.
    9. Andriani, Pierpaolo & Kaminska, Renata, 2021. "Exploring the dynamics of novelty production through exaptation: a historical analysis of coal tar-based innovations," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(2).
    10. Jeannette A. Colyvas & Spiro Maroulis, 2015. "Moving from an Exception to a Rule: Analyzing Mechanisms in Emergence-Based Institutionalization," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 26(2), pages 601-621, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:14:p:4968-:d:382652. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.