Psychopath as Pimp

ABSTRACT

Although the study of psychopathy has become a significant area for research in recent years, relatively little attention has been paid to examining the role of psychopa-thy in offenders who live off the avails of prostitution (i.e., “pimps”). It may be argued that this dearth in the literature is surprising given that psychopathy is defined by a unique set of interpersonal and affective characteristics that theoretically should facilitate the business of pimping. As such, the present investigation attempted to profile characteristics of perpetrators who engage in pimping. As expected, psychopathy was an important feature of these perpetrators: over one-third of the 22 perpetrators examined met the diagnostic cut-off of 30 on the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised. To expand our understanding of pimps and their actions, other important perpetrator characteristics were also examined. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to criminal justice factors