Corine de Ruiter

Forensic Psychologist Corine de Ruiter:
“Joran has psychopathic traits”

Corine de Ruiter is Professor of Forensic Psychology at Maastricht University. She’s followed Peter R DeVries’s TV crime programme about Natalee Holloway from start to finish. She calls it “brilliant” and “very professionally made”. In an interview on Wednesday the 6th of February with the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad she analyses Joran van der Sloot. De Ruiter: “Of course it’s impossible to make a diagnosis on the strength of a television programme. Everything portrayed during the show would have to be verified. Not only the facts but people’s behaviour as well.”

A number of striking quotes from De Ruiter about Joran van der Sloot from the NRC Handelsblad interview:

“It's not about Natalee. It’s all about him. He got away with it. He is counting on compensation for being unjustly held in police custody.”

“He is the picture of an extremely antisocial young man. Very egocentric. Egomania. He uses others. No sense of empathy. Joran talks about Natalee as if she were a thing. Lots of smoking dope, gambling, picking up girls, a certain fascination with gangsters. He tends towards an antisocial lifestyle and has psychopathic traits.”

“Drugs can supress one’s inhibitions somewhat, but it’s not like they’re going to start making up all kinds of stories under the influence of cannabis.”

“I’m very convinced by what I have seen. Lying and manipulating the criminal investigators: it all fits in. And if Joran didn't have these personality traits, he would have dealt with the situation with Natalee differently. The cover-up was quite calculating. The next day he went to school as if nothing had happened.”

“Such a scheming mindset is a risk factor for violence. And since Joran is so narcissistic, he easily feels offended.”