Clifford Olson Case Study Of Criminal Behavior

In the 1980s, there were numerous murders and missing individuals in different cities of British Columbia, and the police were puzzled for a period of time as to who the murder was. The murder, Clifford Olson, pledged guilty for his crimes after substantial time had passed. The childhood of Olson may provide support for why he committed such crimes. Clifford Robert Olsen was from Vancouver, British Columbia, and he was born on January 1st, 1940 (Mulgrew, 2011). Although Olson did not face any abuse from his parents, he was known to be an aggressive child. For example, as a child, he showed behaviours similar to a bully. He faced peer rejection in school, resulting in him getting physically abused by his peers (Mulgrew, 2011). His father stated …show more content…
Robert Hare is well known for his knowledge on psychopathy and he was the one who came up with a list of 20 traits which can be identified as psychopathic, some of which include: “pathological lying, manipulative, lack of remorse and guilt, early behaviour problems, juvenile delinquency…” and much more (Bartol & Bartol, 2017). With this list of traits in mind, it is evident that Olson shows patterns of behaviour alike a psychopath. Olson was a delinquent at an early age, starting with theft. Moreover, he also showed early behavioral problems at school, often acting as a bully. He was a pathological liar who was living a double life; his family was unaware of his crimes, and he used to lie to lure his victims. Olson was proficient with his way of using words and could use manipulative tactics to get what he wanted. For example, deceiving the guards` into thinking he was not physically well, so they would be compelled to take him to a hospital (Worthington, 2012). Olson also shows no signs of empathy or remorse for his crimes; this is seen when he was in prison for the 11 convictions, rather than regretting the choices he made in his life, he wrote disturbing letters to the victims’ family (Worthington, 2012). I would say that Olson is a dyssocial psychopath and he shows his aggression and other behaviours which he may have learned them from his childhood peers (Bartol & Bartol, 2017), who would be physically abusive with him. According to a study conducted by fanti and Kimonis (2013), those who are known to be impulsive in childhood, one of many traits of psychopathy, are more prone to be victims of peer rejection. Olson was determined as an impulsive individual, according to his assessment, which increased his chances of being victimized by his peers (Worthington, 2012). I think that