Sexual sadism has long been of interest to scholars and clinicians in psychology, and most research on sexual sadism has focused on forensic samples. However, recently, research has uncovered the existence of sexual sadism in general populations. Measures designed to assess sexual sadism in the general population are lacking. To address this gap, we created the Index of Consensual Sexual Sadism (ICSS) and performed some initial psychometric testing of its structure, measurement invariance,...

CONCLUSION: This study found a link between personality traits and physical activity levels in patients with GD. Gamblers with higher scores on obsessive-compulsive and self-destructive personality traits were more likely to fall into the moderate-high physical activity group. In contrast, those with higher scores on antisocial and borderline personality traits were more likely to be classified in the low physical activity group.

CONCLUSIONS: Out of all Dark Triad components, psychopathy showed the strongest link with gaining pleasure from hurting others. The results underscore the differential predictive value of psychopathy's subcomponents for sadistic pleasure. Coldheartedness can be considered especially disturbing because of its unique relationship to deriving joy from irreversible harm-infliction (i.e. killing bugs). Our findings further establish psychopathy - and especially its coldheartedness component - as the...

The nosology for criminals who murder multiple victims is at once well-established and controversial, perhaps because theorists have largely segregated such offenders from the broader criminal population. The current study introduces the superhomicide offender, an individual convicted of at least five murders, to locate multiple homicide offenders within the criminological and epidemiological science pertaining to the most pathological offenders, and statistically place them with other...