Conclusions

Summary

In the concluding chapter, I summarise again the central argument of the book and the evidence I have offered at various stages in support of it. I take care to set out the limitations of this argument as well as its conclusions: the limited set of reasons, to which psychopaths are not responsible for responding, and the limited class of people to whom my conclusions apply, namely those who have a severe lack of empathy stemming from birth or childhood. Finally, I point to some issues which would require additional argument: whether society would be justified in pre-emptively incarcerating psychopaths, and whether people who exhibit psychopathic traits to a lesser degree might as a result have diminished responsibility.