{"id":11589,"date":"2011-10-12T12:55:08","date_gmt":"2011-10-12T16:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=11589"},"modified":"2011-10-12T13:25:43","modified_gmt":"2011-10-12T17:25:43","slug":"there-is-no-off-the-shelf-exam-that-can-detect-sociopathic-killers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2011\/10\/12\/there-is-no-off-the-shelf-exam-that-can-detect-sociopathic-killers\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;There is no off-the-shelf exam [that can] detect sociopathic killers&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www2.macleans.ca\/2011\/10\/12\/screening-for-psychopaths\/\" target=\"_blank\">Michael Friscolanti<\/a> explains how former Colonel Russell Williams managed to avoid coming to the attention of the police for so long:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>An elite officer who piloted prime ministers and the Queen\u2014and oversaw the country\u2019s largest air force base\u2014was doubling as a depraved sexual predator who somehow managed to ascend the ranks without a whiff of suspicion. Grasping for an explanation, the Canadian Forces launched an \u201cimmediate review\u201d of the way candidates are selected for senior command positions\u2014and whether enhanced psychological testing might have revealed the real Russ Williams.<\/p>\n<p>The answer, sadly, is no. Among hundreds of pages of internal military documents, obtained by <em>Maclean\u2019s<\/em> under the Access to Information Act, is a draft version of that review. It confirms what leading experts have long maintained: there is no off-the-shelf exam that employers, armed forces or otherwise, can use to detect sociopathic killers. \u201cGiven the recent events in CFB Trenton, it is natural for the CF to question whether or not the organization could have identified a sexual sadist or predicted that an individual would become a serial sexual murderer,\u201d the report says. But that \u201cwould be unrealistic to expect.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Every recruit is subject to various levels of screening, including a criminal records check and an aptitude test. Members also undergo an annual evaluation that assesses past performance and potential for promotion. To be considered for senior command (colonels in the army and air force; captains in the navy), an officer\u2019s file must be \u201cthoroughly reviewed\u201d and endorsed by a board of superiors who examine \u201cpersonal characteristics, demonstrated leadership ability, education and professional development.\u201d Nothing in Williams\u2019s file, an impeccable 23-year career, offered the slightest hint of his alter ego.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Michael Friscolanti explains how former Colonel Russell Williams managed to avoid coming to the attention of the police for so long: An elite officer who piloted prime ministers and the Queen\u2014and oversaw the country\u2019s largest air force base\u2014was doubling as a depraved sexual predator who somehow managed to ascend the ranks without a whiff of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,9,5],"tags":[145,343,139],"class_list":["post-11589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cancon","category-law","category-military","tag-airforce","tag-crimeandpunishment","tag-psychology"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-30V","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11589"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11589\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11592,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11589\/revisions\/11592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}