"The incarcerated psychopaths, however, are what a great deal of the available research on psychopathy has been conducted on. It can be very difficult to successfully identify psychopaths, even the ones that are in prison for violent crimes. This is so because the majority of them are exquisite liars, and a lot of them are smart enough to know what researchers are looking for on psychological tests and in one-on-one interviews. In fact, there are inmates that obtain books dealing with psychological testing and various other areas in the field of psychology. These inmates study the material and then, in return for payment, instruct fellow inmates how to answer psychological tests in a manner that will make them look good and possibly get them an early release from jail (Hare, 1993). So, this means that psychopaths can learn how to efficiently trick psychometric tests while they are in prison. Psychopaths have much better access to information about psychological testing and psychology in general when they are not imprisoned, obviously including research regarding psychopathy. It is possible that some of them receive actual training or college degrees in psychology, making them that much more adept at avoiding detection. In summary, it is not as simple to correctly recognize a psychopath as the media and Hollywood make it appear to be. Someone is not automatically a psychopath because they committed murder, rape, torture, etc. There are certain personality traits and socially undesirable behaviors that must be present before someone can be diagnosed as a psychopath (Hare, 1993).
