Table of ContentsApplication of the PCL to John Wayne Gacy Jr. Conclusion References “Psychopathy is a clinical construct characterized by a set of affective, interpersonal, lifestyle, and antisocial. ". Psychopathic individuals tend to be callous, lack empathy toward others, and display little guilt or remorse for their actions. Psychopaths often inflict physical harm on strangers or even known people. Psychopathy can be used to accurately predict future crime and violence. It is used as a risk indicator in the criminal justice system to make sentencing and release decisions, in death penalty cases, for sex offenders and even in juvenile cases. Psychopathy can be detected in people by following a 20-point checklist formulated by Dr. Robert Hare. John Wayne Gacy Jr. is a name that lives in infamy in the study of serial killers. He was responsible for the rape and murder of 33 teenagers. So, using the Psychopathy Checklist, we will try to correlate the psychopathic traits in his life and his crimes and determine whether he was a psychopath or not. Say no to plagiarism. Get a custom essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get Original Essay John Wayne Gacy's childhood was filled with physical and mental abuse at the hands of his father, John Gacy Sr. Gacy's father was a severe alcoholic and was disappointed in his son for his feminine habits ("John Wayne Gacy Biography", 2015). At a young age, Gacy preferred gardening and cooking to fishing, sports, or other typically masculine activities, which disappointed his father. This disappointment led his father to abuse him physically and mentally. His sexual identity was a big struggle for Gacy, but he found a way to hide it when he moved to Illinois, got married, and started a family, which helped conceal and repress his homosexual desires. Although he attempted to suppress his feelings under the guise of a heterosexual family, he succumbed to his homosexual desires when he sodomized a young boy, the son of another Jaycee, in August 1967 ("John Wayne Gacy Biography”, 2015). He was sentenced to 10 years in prison, but only served 18 months (“John Wayne Gacy Biography,” 2015). When Gacy was incarcerated, his father died of cirrhosis of the liver due to his excessive drinking (“John Wayne Gacy Biography,” 2015). Gacy believed that he was the cause of his father's death and that his father died because of his sodomy conviction. He began acting violently toward other inmates and further repressed his sexual desires toward young men. After his release, Gacy moved to Chicago to try to restart his life and became a well-respected member of the community ("John Wayne Gacy Biography", 2015). He became a successful businessman by starting his own construction company and being in contact with various community leaders and political figures ("John Wayne Gacy Biography", 2015). Gacy also hosted a few block parties, where he dressed up as Pogo the Clown for the children. Pogo the Clown was a character Gacy wore to gain the trust and respect of his community. In an interview, Gacy explained that when he wore his costume, he felt like a child ("John Wayne Gacy Biography", 2015). Although Gacy was successful on the outside, on the inside he still tried to hide his true colors as he lured teenagers to his home where he subjugated them, raped them and then murdered them. Gacy often worehis Pogo the Clown costume, which gives him the image of the killer clown that he has in the eyes of people today. Later, while under surveillance, Gacy spoke about his work as a clown, with detectives remarking, "Clowns can commit murder with impunity." » Gacy's wave of murders lasted six years without anyone suspecting anything. This situation was shattered when he raped and murdered a young man who was well known and respected in the community. Gacy was the last man known to have interacted with the boy, citing law enforcement to investigate. Eventually, many of the victims were found buried in the crawl space beneath Gacy's house. John Wayne Gacy's murder spree lasted from 1972 to 1978, during which he killed 33 teenagers. Application of the PCL to John Wayne Gacy Jr. Surface charm is defined as giving the impression of being sweet, engaging, and charming, but it's all on the surface and a person doesn't feel anything from their heart. He was very popular with his colleagues and was often at the forefront of charity campaigns, but this was only to advance his political career and make connections for success and meant nothing to Gacy. This lightness helped him go unnoticed as long as he was not seen as someone who would rape and murder teenagers, but rather as a respected member of the community who worked for their well-being. He receives a score of 2. Additionally, he was also a pathological liar. Pathological lying is a habit or compulsion to lie to achieve one's motive. He lied to his wives about his homosexual desires and hid his murderous face from them. He also lied to his victim in order to lure her to his home, often under the pretext of giving her work. He also lied to the police investigating the fate of the victims as well as to his colleagues and friends, hiding from them the double life he led. You could even say that he was lying to himself by repeating that he was not homosexual, because perhaps he did not want to come to the idea that he was gay. It again scores a 2. Manipulation can be defined as controlling or using something or someone in a skillful and unscrupulous way. Gacy was an expert at manipulation, the Pogo the Clown persona he adorned was a prime example of his ability to coerce and manipulate people. He seemed so charming that parents enthusiastically let Face interact with their children. He also used his position as a business owner to entice people to come to him by offering them a job with his company (“John Wayne Gacy Biography,” 2015). His charming nature, mixed with his ability to manipulate and coerce people, was the reason he was able to gain and manipulate so many victims because it was easy to trust him, the trust he later used to his advantage in restraining, raping and then murdering these victims. which earns it a score of 2. Lack of guilt or remorse means showing no guilt or regret that someone did something wrong and instead trying to blame others for your actions in order to justify yourself that it what you did was not your fault. Gacy lacked remorse for his murders and often blamed the victims for their deaths. For example, he mentioned that the mother of one of his victims told him that her son was very innocent, instead of feeling any regret, he questioned that boy's character by saying that if he was so good that why was he on the run? It receives a rating of 2. Empathy means feeling for someone when you have nothing to gain, lack of empathy means having no feelings for anyone and doing nothing about it.outside of its own benefit. He showed no empathy towards his victims and murdered them even when they kept begging him to release them. He showed no empathy towards the parents of the deceased boys and attempted to blame their children for their deaths. It again receives a rating of 2. The superficial effect is described as having no depth in feelings and just appearing to feel from the outside. People with a surface effect often do not respond to fear, love, anger, etc. Gacy began to show a superficial effect since his childhood, obviously, when his father beat his siblings and he showed no signs of fear and did not cry even when he was hit. his father, which made him angrier and he beat him more, but it still had no effect on him emotionally. Although his father's death had an effect on him, he quickly got over it, but I wouldn't consider that enough to reduce his points. Thus, he receives 2 points again. Failure to accept responsibility is often similar to lack of guilt because the person does not accept any wrongdoing. Gacy accepted no responsibility for his murders or for the divorce of his wives or for the sodomization of teenagers. He accepted responsibility for his father's death because he thought he died from the shock of his conviction for sodomizing a teenager. It therefore receives a score of 1. Sexual promiscuity is a person having multiple sexual partners at once and is often a characteristic associated with psychopaths. Gacy also had numerous sexual relationships, he had extramarital affairs with his wife's consent and even had homosexual relations. He later began raping teenage boys to satisfy his homosexual desires. He receives a score of 2. Gacy has also had many short-term relationships, These relationships often lack emotions on one or both sides, Psychopaths often do not have relationships where they are dependent on one or both the other, He married twice and his first wife left him. after 5 years, when she learned of his homosexual activities. After that, he married another woman who divorced her when he told her he was bisexual after 4 years of marriage. So he gets a score of 2 again. Need for stimulation is defined as the need to do something risky or different to be stimulated and feel satisfied. Gacy was always doing something to keep his mind distracted and satisfied. Previously he was making a name for himself and becoming rich and successful, once this wore off he gave in to his homosexual desires, often engaging in extra-war affairs with men and later raping and murdering teenage boys for sexual and emotional stimulation. SO it gets a score of 2. Parasitic lifestyle means the type of lifestyle in which a person is completely dependent on someone else to provide for their needs and get rid of them like a parasite for their livelihood . Although Gacy exhibits many traits of psychopathy, he did not live a parasitic lifestyle as he became a political leader and later a successful businessman through his own hard work and did not live alone . (Kelly Falla. , n. d)Thus, it receives a score of 0. Lack of goals is often found in psychopaths, it means having no long-term goals for which a person works. Gacy was focused on what he wanted to do and always had a long term goal that he was working towards. Previously, he made a name for himself in the political scene, then he became a successful and rich entrepreneur, although he had committed some crimes, but he/25731405