IndexIntroductionJohn Wayne Gacy: BackgroundPsychological AssessmentThe Big 5 TheoryEysenck's Theory of PersonalityConclusionIntroductionJohn Wayne Gacy was active between 1972 and 1978, he was a murderer/rapist with 33 victims of known homicides, all identified as young men and boys between the ages of 14 and 21. Although Gacy did not massacre people, he was an outgoing neighbor who occasionally dressed up as "Pogo the Clown" to entertain children at parties. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Criminals can be analyzed in various ways using psychological theories. Psychological theories are a tool to explain the thoughts and actions that people have and do, they do so through various developmental, cognitive, social, behavioral and affective mechanisms (Gannon, 2014). Trait theory is commonly used to determine someone's personality and can help determine whether someone is a psychopath, a sociopath, or suffers from antisocial personality disorder (Mulcahy, 2017). The psychological aspects of the topic have been explored by a couple of different trait theories. We will mainly discuss the Big 5 theory and Eysenck's personality theory. They would help determine the presence of a personality disorder, plus they can also analyze whether people's intelligence quotient has any relevance to the personality disorder. Traits are assumed to be reliable over time, meaning that the traits a child possesses will carry with them through adolescence and adulthood. Traits are also internal, meaning they do not arise from environmental factors, but arise from a person's internal characteristics. The trait theories approach uses a set of traits common among criminals to analyze the personality of the person in question. John Wayne Gacy: Background John Wayne Gacy lived a seemingly normal life blending into society despite his crimes. Whether his behavior can be explained through trait theories is what we will discuss further. Background Not one to have a peaceful childhood, Gacy had an alcoholic father who beat him regularly. He was sexually abused at the age of nine and felt unable to tell anyone for fear that his father had another reason to attack him (Mull, 2017). He was also bullied at school because he was overweight and was unable to take part in activities due to being diagnosed with a heart disorder. He also had a head injury that later led to fainting spells due to a clot triggered by the injury. His father rejected the head injury and whenever he had a problem with the injury his father abused him. Gacy had a decent relationship with his mother and siblings, but his father also used this factor as an exasperator to beat him. In due course he became “apathetic and emotionally hardened” towards both the beatings and other people (Buchanan-Dunne, 2017). John Gacy lived with his family, had a good job, was a political activist, and generally supported what appeared to be an outstanding citizen of Illinois, United States of America. People around him described Gacy as industrious, dependable, and argumentative but he was impartial, insensitive, and apathetic toward the feelings and desires of others. This immensely different view the public had of Gacy is how he managed to hide what he was doing for the duration of what he did, no one person (including the police) claimed that he was capable of such heinous things. Maybe the police havecaptured Gacy, but the cases were always dismissed due to the witness/victim's failure to appear in court and other reasons. Ten years before his final arrest he was accused of raping a young employee and was released after 18 months for good behavior (Taylor, 2003). Gacy was released and remarried, this alliance was unsuccessful and after a few years they separated. The separation led Gacy to believe he could do whatever he wanted, and so his crimes radically worsened. The political career he had built fell apart when allegations against him of sexual misconduct against young boys mounted (Mull, 2017). A 15-year-old boy who disappeared after coming to him for a job was the turning point in raising suspicions about Gacy. This led to an investigation at his home that uncovered crucial evidence linking Gacy to several missing boys, but it didn't have enough to arrest him. He was under surveillance by detectives who were waiting for any clues about the missing 15-year-old. At a certain point he behaved in an obnoxious way, inviting the officers to leave his home where they noticed the smell of rotting flesh, prompting a search which resulted in the recovery of the body. He was soon arrested and later confessed to the police that he had killed at least thirty people and kept them in the crawl space of his house. He then attempted to plead insanity in court, which was rejected, his lawyer then attempted to argue that the 33 murders were unintentionally caused by erotic asphyxiation (Taylor, 2003). In 1980 Gacy was sentenced to death by lethal injection and in 1994 he was finally executed. After 17 days of observation and interviews in 1977, evidence emerged of antisocial personality disorder characterized by contempt for others. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) states that there are specific characteristics (traits) that an individual must possess to be classified as having ASPD. A significant characteristic of Gacy that matched the characteristics of ASPD was his lack of remorse following his actions. Gacy's lack of empathy towards his victims was astonishing as he went so far as to blame his victims for their fate (Taylor, 2003). He believed that “50% of American families will be single-parent, which demonstrates a flaw in the church in not being able to keep families together and children who run away from home in search of love in other places” as confirmation of his actions (Gacy, 1992). Gacy has several traits that point in the direction of his personality disorder. Failure to comply with social norms, fraud and wanton disregard for the safety of others. While it met most aspects of the ASPD criteria, it did not meet some. He planned his actions along with other life events which made him non-impulsive. He had a secure job, a seemingly normal life, was not short-tempered and for the most part was not involved in any violence other than the crimes he committed in secret. These serious factors not only correspond to ASPD, Gacy was a true psychopath, a disorder that is difficult to determine in reality, as they lead you with a normal and charming appearance but a manipulative and volatile interior that lacks conscience and empathy (Cook, 2011) . Psychological Evaluation Gacy is classified as a psychopath and not a sociopath. This is because despite the similarities between the two, Gacy had a seemingly stable life and was meticulous in planning his attacks. The psychologist who evaluated Gacy in 1977 could not make a complete assessment of his personality, since Gacy was not only cunning and manipulative, but wasactually trying to hide who he really was. A skilled serial killer. (Mull, 2017). Once Gacy was finally captured, further observations and interviews were conducted on him. Medical experts testified that he suffered from borderline schizophrenia, multiple personality disorder, and antisocial behavior (Mull, 2017). Schizophrenia is a chronic mental disorder that causes the patient to have a distorted sense of reality, a mixture of hallucinations, delusions and distorted thinking that affects daily functioning. The severity can increase considerably in the absence of adequate medications (Mayo, 2017). The cause of schizophrenia is unknown, several researchers believe that it is due to the imbalance of the chemicals dopamine and glutamate naturally present in the brain, so it could happen to anyone at any stage of their life (Mayo, 2017). Multiple personality disorder is a form of intensive dissociation, it is a course in which the brain does not connect a person's thoughts, memories, feelings, actions, or sense of identity. This disorder is often the result of acute trauma during early childhood. Gacy suffered severe trauma as a child and, unsurprisingly, was at risk of developing these disorders. His mental disorders have diminished his ability to understand the depth of his crimes. He was not a sane person, nor of able mind and as a result he was proven to be criminally insane at the time the murders were committed (Mull, 2017). The Big 5 Theory The Big 5 is a significant method used in trait theories to aid in understanding a person's personality and why they made the decisions they did. The large percentage is made up of openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. There are some correlations between the Big 5 and crime, those convicted of child sex crimes are likely to have the following traits; High neuroticism, low extraversion, low conscientiousness and low openness. The neuroticism trait is often associated with depression and anxiety. High neuroticism means that a person is sensitive to stressors, is more likely to have frequent activations of negative emotions, reactions tend to be intense; and it will last longer and take longer to return to baseline (Henriques, 2017). Having low extroversion makes you introverted, they thrive when alone and feel uncomfortable when surrounded by people. People low in conscientiousness tend to act on impulse, are not goal-driven, and are spontaneous, impulsive, and noncompliant (McGreal, 2014). Low openness will pursue familiarity, try not to venture into the unfamiliar, are expected to give up opportunities, try new activities or a new job, tend to be accustomed to predictive lives. Gacy, being a convicted child sex offender had several personality traits that correlated with the above. Gacy lived most of his life alone after his divorces. He attended social gatherings, but not as Gacy, but as Pogo the Clown, this was a warning of his split personality disorder. Pogo the Clown was Gacy's method of being extroverted. Gacy rarely traveled, grew up in Illinois, lived most of his adult life in Illinois, and died in Illinois (Buchanan-Dunne, M. 2017). He also had no distinct life goals or ambitions, pretending to be what he thought was necessary to be a normal family man, yet sexually attacking teenagers even when things were going well with his family. Eysenck's Personality Theory Another commonly used theory is Eysenck's personality theory, which is relatively similar to the Big 5 method,.