‘Child psychopaths’ are misunderstood: What experts want you to know

There can be an air of inevitability to how we talk about psychopaths – that old-fashioned “bad seed” theory that purports the antisocial, manipulative or even violent are born that way and destined to do harm.

But Professor Eva Kimonis, a clinical psychologist and director of the University of NSW’s Parent-Child Research Clinic, has seen first-hand that the road to psychopathy isn’t necessarily predetermined – if intervention arrives early enough.

Kimonis works with children with challenging behaviours, including those displaying “callous-unemotional traits” or “limited prosocial emotions”, which can be precursors of psychopathy in adulthood (psychopathy is a diagnosis only given to adults).

She has just published a book, A Clinical Guide to Working with Youth with Conduct Disorders and Limited Prosocial Emotions, which she hopes will fill a gap in diagnostic understanding and evidence-based treatment.

By the time children arrive in her care, she says, many have been misdiagnosed with autism or with pathological demand avoidance, which involves an extreme resistance to everyday demands and requests.

A correct diagnosis means families can access the right treatment, lessening the load on the healthcare system and, ultimately, changing the course of children’s lives.

“Our kids have significant impairment,” Kimonis says. “Many of them can’t function at home or school. They get kicked out of daycares or preschools. Their parents are left to figure out how they’re going to work while also taking care of their kid.

“They often aren’t allowed to go to mainstream schools any more … many of them we know never finish high school or go off to college, and just become entangled in the justice system.”

While up to 1 per cent of the global population is estimated to be psychopaths, this figure rises to between 15 and 25 per cent for the incarcerated population – meaning the work of researchers like Kimonis could have far-reaching implications.

Mark Dadds, a clinical psychologist at the University of Sydney’s Child Behaviour Research Clinic, was at the forefront of early research into children with callous-unemotional traits. (Dadds worked alongside prominent American child psychologist Paul Frick, Kimonis’ PhD supervisor.)

“Originally, the psychology paid no attention to these kids,” Dadds says. “The interest came because myself and a bunch of other people were treating conduct disorder – kids with chronic problems of aggression, emotional dysregulation, not following instructions, etc.”

While all children exhibit these traits to some extent, of course, th