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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What was the verdict in the case of Edward Gein?

2. What do psychopaths commit twice as often as other criminal offenders?

3. Why did Gary Gilmore claim that he was not a great thief.

4. What effect did Jeffrey have on Elyse's future relationships with men?

5. What was incongruous about the red button in the psychologist's office in British Columbia Penitentiary?

Short Essay Questions

1. How do psychopaths come to be involved in crime?

2. Why is it important to determine whether a psychopath is mentally ill or simply a wrongdoer?

3. How did psychopaths fare as fighter pilots during World War II?

4. What signs did Helen have that her preadolescent daughter, Alice, was "off"?

5. Why does the author claim it is not surprising that psychopaths commit more violent acts than other criminals?

6. How do normal criminals become involved in a criminal lifestyle?

7. What does William March list as some reasons good people do not readily recognize psychopathy?

8. What distinguishes psychopaths from the mentally ill?

9. In what ways are psychopaths compared to science fiction androids by the author?

10. Without an internal motivation to abide by society's rules, what is the psychopath free to do?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is your explanation for the public's glamorization of criminals? Do you accept the theory that the public can play out illicit behavior without personal cost by identifying with criminals onscreen? Do you think that people always root for an underdog, and that an individual out of sync with the larger system is always an underdog? Explain your theory for the attraction of evil and support your theory with examples and information from the text.

Essay Topic 2

Why do you think psychopaths do not normally get along with one another? Do you think they can recognize others who are like them? What makes you think so or not? In your essay, provide evidence for your opinion.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay giving advice to parents whose very young child has begun to exhibit signs of psychopathy: indifference to the feelings of others, cruelty to animals and other children, etc. Give the parents your opinion as to whether it is an advantage to get an early diagnosis or not. Support your idea with material from the text.

(see the answer keys)

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