What are individuals with psychopathy like and what are their defining features? ‘How can we know if someone is a psychopath or is at risk of becoming one?’ considers two case studies to give an idea of the developmental course of criminal psychopathy and what psychopathic personality traits look like. It discusses the Psychopathy Checklist, developed by Robert Hare in the 1980s, and explains the difference between antisocial personality disorder, sociopathy, and psychopathy. Research has shown that whether we look at criminal psychopaths, individuals with high levels of psychopathic traits in the general population, or children who are at risk of developing psychopathy, similar patterns of brain function and information processing are seen.