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The Association Between Psychopathic Personality Traits and Victimization and Exposure to Violence in a Sample of Saudi Arabian Youth

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Abstract

Psychopathic personality traits have been shown to increase the odds of a wide range of antisocial outcomes. Very little research, however, has examined the association between psychopathy and the risk of personal victimization. The current study address this gap in the literature by examining the association between scores on the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy scale and a self-reported measure of victimization by using cross-sectional data drawn from a sample of youth residing in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (N = 311). The results revealed a positive and statistically significant association between LSPR scores and the odds of being victimized. Additional analyses revealed that two mediators—arrest history and exposure to delinquent peers—were related to personal victimization, but neither of these measures mediated the effects of LSPR scores on victimization. Whether these findings would generalize to other nations remains an issue awaiting future research.

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Notes

  1. More specific information about school characteristics is not permitted to be released or analyzed in order to ensure that the school from which the sample was drawn remains anonymous. We should note, however, that the distribution of the school’s characteristics is similar to data from other schools in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

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Acknowledgments

This project was funded by the Deanship of Scientific Research (DSR), King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, under Grant No. 1-125-1433 /HiCi. The authors, therefore, acknowledge the DSR for technical and financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University, 145 Convocation Way, 315C Eppes Hall, Tallahassee, FL, 32306-1127, USA

    Kevin M. Beaver

  2. Center for Social and Humanities Research, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

    Kevin M. Beaver, Mohammed Said Al-Ghamdi, Ahmed Nezar Kobeisy & Fathiyah H. Alqurashi

  3. Department of Criminal Justice, Pennsylvania State University, Abington, PA, 19001, USA

    Eric J. Connolly

  4. School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Nebraska at Omaha, Lincoln, NE, 68588-0561, USA

    Joseph A. Schwartz

Authors
  1. Kevin M. Beaver
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  2. Mohammed Said Al-Ghamdi
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  3. Ahmed Nezar Kobeisy
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  4. Fathiyah H. Alqurashi
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  5. Eric J. Connolly
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  6. Joseph A. Schwartz
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Correspondence to Kevin M. Beaver.

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Beaver, K.M., Al-Ghamdi, M.S., Kobeisy, A.N. et al. The Association Between Psychopathic Personality Traits and Victimization and Exposure to Violence in a Sample of Saudi Arabian Youth. Psychiatr Q 87, 217–228 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11126-015-9383-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11126-015-9383-1

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