NCJ Number
181976
Journal
Criminal Justice and Behavior Volume: 27 Issue: 2 Dated: April 2000 Pages: 256-272
Date Published
2000
Length
17 pages
Annotation
This study explored whether a risk/needs perspective could assist in understanding the construct of criminal psychopathy as assessed by the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R).
Abstract
A total of 321 inmates serving sentences for violent offenses were assessed on the PCL-R and administered a variety of psychometric measures relevant to criminal conduct. Using a traditional PCL-R cutoff, 36 participants (11.2 percent) were designated as psychopaths, and 285 (88.8 percent) were designated as nonpsychopaths and compared on various criminal conduct and psychometric variables. Results showed that psychopaths had significantly greater risk/needs areas than nonpsychopaths, and this pattern remained when alternative diagnostic cutoffs were used. The psychological assessment of forensic clientele have typically used a diagnostic approach that involves grouping clients into categorical clinical entities. The assessment of psychopathy follows this tradition in that clients are evaluated on whether they reach the diagnostic cut-off on the PCL-R and are therefore categorized as psychopathic. Although this may be a popular approach in forensic assessment, it is seriously limited in the manner in which management and/or therapeutic decisions are made on the basis of assessment results. The risk/need approach, on the other hand, provides greater clinical direction because the assessment of risk and need are made concomitantly. Regarding treatment, the results of the current study suggest that employment, substance abuse, peer group associates, and attitudes are appropriate treatment targets if they are delivered in an appropriate manner. This issue, however, awaits further empirical verification. 5 tables and 36 references