How to recognize and recover from everyday sociopaths - narcissists

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Sociopaths are the most destructive personalities of the human race. Don’t you think you should know how many of them are living in your community?

If you’re in the U.S., Lovefraud.com can give you a rough idea. Just click on the “Risk Calculator” linkā€”it’s located in the navigation bar and at the top of most pages. Plug in your zip code and you’ll know about how many predators are targeting people in your town.

Sociopaths in selected communities

  • New York, NYā€”80,083
  • Los Angeles, CAā€”23,560
  • Phoenix, AZā€”12,024
  • St. Petersburg, FLā€”3,486
  • Great Falls, MTā€”711
  • Mankota, MNā€”517
  • Skippack, PAā€”7

Dr. Robert Hare, an international expert on sociopaths (he uses the term “psychopaths”), estimates that 1% of the population of North America have the character disorder. But this is an abstraction, difficult to comprehend.

So the Lovefraud Risk Calculator performs a very simple calculation. It multiplies the population of your town, according to U.S. Census records, by 1%. This tells you, in an actual number, the threat that you face in your own community.

Among the 8 million people of New York City, for example, there are more than 80,000 sociopaths. And among the 706 people of Skippack, Pennsylvaniaā€”a chic little country crossroads town outside of Philadelphiaā€”there may be seven sociopaths.

The demographic makeup of a particular community doesn’t matter. Sociopaths can be found among all races, all age groups, all nationalities, all income levels. There are, however, more male sociopaths than female.

Some people argue that the 1% figure is low. In her book, The Sociopath Next Door, Dr. Martha Stout states that 4% of the population are sociopaths.

Stout relies on the “antisocial personality disorder” definition put forth in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV by the American Psychiatric Association. This definition is broader than the one used by Dr. Hare.

But even if Stout’s antisocials don’t meet Hare’s definition of a psychopath, they are nasty people who should also be avoided. And there are more of them.

In reality, no one will ever know precisely how many sociopaths live among us. What you do need to know is that the number is hugeā€”and they are not relegated to underprivileged communities.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  2. Donna Andersen

    Tomtom, you are absolutely right. The Internet is full of predators. Many people have written to Lovefraud to tell their stories of being victimized, and quite a few of them met the predator on the Internet. With the internet, sociopaths just go on a fishing expedition, casting a lot of hooks to see who bites. People should be very careful about Internet dating.

  3. Fighter

    Frankly Donna – I think you’re a little low for New York šŸ˜‰

    tomtom – check out this post from my blog:
    http://cyberpaths.blogspot.com/2006/02/hows-to-for-online-seducing-read-on.html

    Women Ps do it too. You are NOTHING but a toy, a time waster, an object, a blow up doll with a pulse, a warm body with a wallet – to these people. And here they are online, BRAGGING about how they seduced you with empty words!! and sharing their techniques! To my mind, this is the same as those “sex hobbyists” who give juicy details on review boards about hookers they ****ed. There is no emotion, no humanity here.

    Horrifying but true – its impossible to trust ANYONE these days. I get so sick of people who say “that would NEVER happen to me, I am too smart, savvy,” etc etc. You can be taken down even by people you have known for YEARS & YEARS and never realized they were a sociopath.

  4. Sandra

    Unfortunately, the Internet has given these sociopaths a whole new supply. Men and women must be extremely careful about doing online dating and really check someone out by doing a background check and educating themselves to the the red flags. Learn how to spot a sociopath. Sites like lovefraud.com and the lovefraud blog provide a wonderful service to unsuspecting targets. I was targeted and I met my sociopath online. Unfortunately, I married him and learned a little too late that I was just another at end of a long line of targets.

  5. chettibo

    Seattle has thousands. I grewup in San Francisco. Lived up north for twenty years. What are the chances that my next door neighbor, a millionaire, was a psychopath. Well, 100%.
    Scary terry me almost to death. Unprotected sex with so many men, I lost count. Sociopaths have an oral fixation. So, after two years of emotional vampirism, drained and distraught. Because a really good psycopath/sociopath dumps on their vile on guess who? Yes they kill by degrees. Her sweet ex-hub # DEAD, heart attack. Ex-hub #1 DEAD. But, she eats healthy, only organic, exercises to death, and never eats FAT.

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