I first heard about the Whitaker family killing on Tru TV and then saw the father, Kent, on television again yesterday. For those who may not be familiar with the story, Kent and Tricia Whitaker, and their two sons Bart and Kevin, lived in Sugar Land, Texas. By all outward appearances, they seemed to be an ideal family. Kent and Tricia had been married for 28 years and their oldest son Bart was about to graduate from college. On December 10, 2003, the family was celebrating Bart’s upcoming graduation and headed home at 8:30 where a gunman shot all four of the family members as they entered the house. Tricia and Kevin died while Bart and Kent survived.

Investigators soon learned that Bart wasn’t actually going to graduate college, but was on academic probation at his university and was still considered a freshman. Detectives found that two years earlier authorities had visited the Whitakers to tell them Bart had been overheard planning to kill his family. When Kent and Tricia confronted their son, he stated it was a joke made while he was drunk, so they dismissed the threat. But detectives eventually discovered that Bart had convinced two of his friends to murder his family. Bart fled Texas and hid out in Mexico for a year under an alias until he was captured, convicted of his role in the murders, and sent to death row where he resides today awaiting execution. Bart’s father, Kent, forgave his son and wrote a book entitled, “Murder by Family”. Bart, while professing remorse, is incapable of actually feeling anything because he’s what medical professionals have defined as a sociopath.

Whether it’s Ted Bundy or Hannibal Lecter, fact or fiction, we’ve come to think of sociopaths as serial killers. And while they garner most of the media attention, most sociopaths do not become serial killers. The number of sociopaths in the U.S. is estimated to be around 4% of the population, the highest percentage in the world, leading some researchers to label sociopathy as a Western disease. Researchers speculate that the demise of the extended and the immediate family as well as the high divorce rate, an over-emphasis on individualism, praising maverick behavior, and the lack of a sense of community, are all factors that may contribute to the high rate of sociopaths in the U.S.

It’s believed that the majority of convicted criminals have some form of Anti-Personality Disorder, which is really an adult version of juvenile conduct disorder. Sociopaths generally have complete disregard for the rights of others and the rules of society. They lack remorse, shame or guilt. They’re narcissistic, charming, manipulative, superficial and often impulsive. Their friends are really just victims or unwitting accomplices, the same with their lovers.

Diagnosing it before the age of fifteen is difficult, although bedwetting, animal abuse and pyromania are markers of the disorder. There should also be evidence of a conduct disorder. Researchers don’t know the number of children who exhibit these signs and grow up to develop APD, but these are often the traits of diagnosed adults.

Some research suggests a connection between APD and maternal deprivation in the first five years of life. Mothers of children who develop the disorder usually didn’t discipline their children and often showed little affection towards them.

There is no effective treatment for sociopaths other than locking them up in a secure facility, or, as in Bart Whitaker’s case, putting them to death.