Hello Daniel
do you actually think Jeremy Bamber was a psychopath I thought he had been assessed 27 times and concluded he was not. So the polygraph test could have been correct if the assessment was correct.
Thank you for your question Susan. A highly interesting one. I think it really depends on your viewpoint. If you take the view that he is guilty, then he is almost certainly a psychopath.
You mention that he has been 'assessed 27 times'. How do we know that the test was specifically for psychopathy? and not the normal battery of standard issue prison tests given out to most, if not all inmates that are Category A? or for any mental health issue? We must ask; who took the tests? what were they for specifically? who conducted them? Were they sanctioned by the prison or were they 'private tests'? was Dr Robert Hare's psychopathy check list (A useful diagnostic tool and now in general use) adhered to? Under what conditions were the tests undertaken?
The test for psychopathy is a very structured examination conducted over a series of interviews. The psychologist must ask a series of questions relating to emotional responses Were you aware that at his orginal trial, his own defense called in a psychologist to examine Bamber in the hope that he would show Bamber to be a perfectly normal individual and were somewhat proturbed to find out that the psychologist whom they had hired had actually thought Bamber was a textbook psychopath? According to Roger Wilkes in his book 'Blood Relations' a book on the case, the eminent psychologist went on record as saying "If ever there was a psychopath, Jeremy Bamber is it"
Now read into that what you will, but it is the only examination by a non-prison psychologist that I know about. The others may have been conducted by prison councillors or run-of-the-mill young, untrained prison psychologists. We do not know what conditions these 'tests were carried out and for what criteria. These prison psychologists in assuming to be ‘expert witnesses’ in their preparation of risk assessment reports there are often so many references to, ‘it seems’, ‘what seems’, ‘I think’, ‘it appears’, ‘he appears to be’, ‘if’, ‘but’, ‘should he feel this or that’, ‘in the long term’, ‘research has shown’ (without reference to what that research is), ‘in the opinion of’, ‘in my opinion’ and so forth that one could be forgiven for thinking that many reports could well have been written by a clairvoyant or astrologer and at worst a betting man. These are NOT scientific tests, but merely an opinion. Psychopathy is extremely difficult to diagnose, due to the very nature of the individual under question. Psychopaths are extremely adept at manipulation, cunning and deceipt. Young, well-meaning or even hardened psychologists I would argue are often fooled by them.
Maggie I do believe that Jeremy Bamber is a psychopath.I do not say this from a psychological standpoint as I am not qualified and would not like to guess, but merely from a criminal one. If he is guility, and my interpretation of the evidence leads me tot hsi conclusion, I believe he is, then it stands to reason that he is also psychopathic.