A criminologist has revealed how to spot a psychopath after explaining their biggest manipulation techniques.
David Wilson, who is a professor of criminology, has explained that, while it's not easy to spot a psychopath, there are signs you can look out for.
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Speaking to LADbible Stories, David revealed how psychopaths use manipulation techniques to get close to their victims.
He said: "Psychopaths are very good at mirroring your behaviour.
"Psychopaths are very good at being plausible [and] being charming.
"But effectively, you spot a psychopath because the psychopath needs to get close to you as quickly as possible.
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"If he gets close to you and learns about you, he's able to use that knowledge to manipulate you because by manipulating you he's able to live off you."
David explained that psychopaths are 'very parasitical', adding: "They don't want to expend too much energy and therefore they can live off you by knowing which buttons to press.
"The way to impress you, the way to get money out of you."
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Although the label is used quite commonly, David explained that only one in 100 people would be clinically diagnosed as a psychopath, and out of those people, 90 per cent are male.
He also spoke about serial killers and why they commit such heinous crimes.
"They like power and often it's a sense of power they feel is denied to them in other aspects of their lives," he said.
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"They all target specific groups of people.
"People are always obsessed by something in the biology of the individual serial killer.
“What’s more interesting is who it is they’re able to kill.
“If we look at those victim groups we’re much more likely to reduce the incidents of serial murder.
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“Serial killers in our culture have only targeted five groups of people.
“Four of those groups serial killers will target in the UK are dominated by women and girls. There’s one group of men that by and large gets targeted by serial killers, that’s gay men.
“The two groups of women and girls that are most regularly targeted by serial killers are women over the age of 60 and sex workers."
David went on to explain how he believes the rate of serial murder could be reduced, adding: “If you really wanted to reduce the incidence of serial murder in our culture you would challenge homophobia, have a grown up debate about how you police those young women and some young men who sell sexual service, and above all we would start trying to give a voice to older people in our culture as opposed to seeing them as a burden on the state.”
Topics: Crime, Mental Health, True Crime
Lucy Devine