Investigating the Components of Psychopathic Traits in Youth Offenders

Despite widespread acceptance of the importance of psychopathic traits in youth, the relative importance of different components of psychopathy remains controversial. This study was conducted to examine whether the interpersonal and lifestyle facets of psychopathy as measured with a valid clinical measure of psychopathic traits contribute to predicting relevant external criteria on top of the contributions of the affective facet. To address this issue, we conducted multiple regressions predicting antisocial behavior, exposure to violence, and psychopathology in a sample of 225 incarcerated adolescents. Results indicated that ratings on the affective component of psychopathy were important in helping to explain variance in many of the external criterion variables but that ratings on the interpersonal and lifestyle facets also helped to explain unique variance in a range of criteria including violent and non-violent crime, exposure to violence, impulsivity, and anger expression. These studies suggest that multiple components of psychopathy are likely to be important both in predicting real world outcomes and in understanding mechanisms involved in the development and manifestation of these traits.     

Reversal Learning Deficits in Criminal Offenders: Effects of Psychopathy,Substance use,and Childhood Maltreatment History

Deficits in reinforcement learning are presumed to underlie the impulsive and incorrigible behavior exhibited by psychopathic criminals. However, previous studies documenting reversal learning impairments in psychopathic individuals have not investigated this relationship across a continuous range of psychopathy severity, nor have they examined how reversal learning impairments relate to different psychopathic traits, such as the interpersonal-affective and lifestyle-antisocial dimensions. Furthermore, previous studies have not considered the role that childhood maltreatment and substance use may have in this specific cognitive deficit. Using a standard reversal learning task in a sample of N = 114 incarcerated male offenders, we demonstrate a significant relationship between psychopathy severity and reversal learning errors. Furthermore, we show a significant interaction between psychopathy and childhood maltreatment, but not substance use, such that individuals high in psychopathy with an extensive history of maltreatment committed the greatest number of reversal learning errors. These findings extend the current understanding of reversal learning performance among psychopathic individuals, and highlight the importance of considering childhood maltreatment when studying psychopathy.     

Psychopathic traits and externalizing behaviors: a comparison of self- and informant reports in the statistical prediction of externalizing behaviors

It has long been assumed that features associated with psychopathy, such as a lack of insight and deceitfulness, may compromise the utility of self-report measures, particularly for understanding the relations between these traits and important outcomes (e.g., offending). Unfortunately, little research has explicitly examined the relations between self- and informant reports of psychopathy and their relations to these outcomes. The current study examined the incremental validity of self- and informant reports of psychopathic traits, assessed with 3 validated psychopathy measures, in the statistical prediction of externalizing behaviors (EBs). To reduce shared method variance, self- and informant reports of EBs (i.e., substance use, antisocial behavior, gambling, and intimate partner violence) were examined separately. Results indicate that both self- and informant reports of psychopathy are related to EBs and provide some degree of incremental validity, although self-reported psychopathy scores proved slightly more useful than other-reported psychopathy scores. These findings suggest that, in nonforensic settings, psychopathy data derived from both self- and other-reported psychopathy measures have utility in understanding the relations between psychopathic traits and EBs.     

Treatment and psychopathy in forensic settings

People commonly question whether highly psychopathic offenders are treatable. Little scientific research has addressed this question despite key developments in the last 20 years in two relevant areas: reliable measurement of psychopathy, and effective treatments for reducing criminal and antisocial behavior in offenders. One obstacle to progress is confusion about defining psychopathy; a necessary preliminary step to advancing intervention. After outlining the principal definitional issues, we review past and recent research on psychopathy and treatment, concluding that a handful of newer, well-designed studies suggest grounds for optimism about psychopathy and treatability. Although psychopathy characteristics—along with other indices of criminal risk—signal responsivity challenges, well-conceived programs for higher risk offenders can reduce recidivism in highly psychopathic offenders and appear to do so by reducing dynamic risk factors. There are no clear indications yet of whether PCL-psychopathic offenders differ from other high-risk offenders in their ability to respond to such treatments. The questions of whether psychopathy itself responds to treatment, and if so, what forms such treatment might take have not yet been addressed. We conclude by suggesting that advances will come from the use of more divergent measures of psychopathy, and in particular, dynamic measures of psychopathy traits that will allow us to document whether change is occurring.     

Assessment of "juvenile psychopathy" and its association with violence: a critical review

Interest in the construct of psychopathy as it applies to children and adolescents has become an area of considerable research interest in the past 5-10 years, in part due to the clinical utility of psychopathy as a predictor of violence among adult offenders. Despite interest in "juvenile psychopathy" in general and its relationship to violence in particular, relatively few studies specifically have examined whether operationalizations of this construct among children and adolescents predict various forms of aggression. This article critically reviews this literature, as well as controversies regarding the assessment of adult psychopathic "traits" among juveniles. Existing evidence indicates a moderate association between measures of psychopathy and various forms of aggression, suggesting that this construct may be relevant for purposes of short-term risk appraisal and management among juveniles. However, due to the enormous developmental changes that occur during adolescence and the absence of longitudinal research on the stability of this construct (and its association with violence), we conclude that reliance on psychopathy measures to make decisions regarding long-term placements for juveniles is contraindicated at this time.     

Applicability of traditional and revised models of psychopathy to the Psychopathy Checklist: screening version

Recently, psychopathy has become virtually synonymous with the Psychopathy Checklist (PCL) measures. However, the "gold standard" 2-factor model that underlines these measures has been questioned for its uncertain empirical support and emphasis on antisocial behavior that is not specific to psychopathic personality deviation. This study (N = 870 civil psychiatric patients) compares the fit of the traditional 2-factor model with that of a revised 3-factor model of psychopathy. The revised model better describes the structure of the Screening Version of the PCL (PCL:SV) than the traditional model. Although the revised model's exclusion of some items that assess antisocial behavior reduces the PCL:SV's power in predicting patient violence, this model arguably assesses psychopathy in a more specific, theoretically coherent fashion that may reduce misapplications of the construct. Implications for future research are discussed.     

Exploring Associations Between Psychopathic Personality and Components of Disinhibition vs. Constraint

Recent models of psychopathy implicate Disinhibition vs. Constraint (DvC) as one of the primary underpinnings of psychopathic traits, although little research has examined associations between specific DvC components and psychopathy facets. The present study aimed to fill this gap by examining associations between psychopathy facets, as operationalized by two widely used self-report psychopathy instruments, and lower-order components of DvC within a racially diverse sample of 1,160 undergraduates. Path analyses confirmed the broad dimension of DvC as representing a general diathesis to psychopathy, with second-order components conferring more specific risks for particular psychopathy traits regardless of the model of psychopathy employed. Further, findings suggest that associations do not vary by race. Results suggest both generality and specificity of DvC dimensions as they relate to psychopathic traits, as well as potential avenues for further investigation of the associations between psychopathy and DvC.     

Juvenile psychopathy and judicial decision making: an empirical analysis of an ethical dilemma

In the burgeoning juvenile psychopathy literature, there is a debate on whether it is appropriate to apply this construct to youths. Some have suggested that labeling children/adolescents as psychopathic might result in negative consequences, such as being recommended for more restrictive placements. However, the scant evidence is equivocal. This study provides additional insights on this issue by assessing judicial perceptions and recommendations to a hypothetical case. Results indicate that psychopathy influenced perceptions of amenability (eta = .12) and dangerousness (eta = .25), and recommendations for placement (eta = .11). More specifically, youth who were both labeled as psychopathic and ascribed psychopathic traits were viewed as less amenable to treatment and more dangerous and were more likely to be recommended for a restrictive placement than youth who were neither labeled nor described as such. The effect of psychopathy on placement recommendations, however, was not significant after controlling for perceptions of dangerous. This suggests that the influence of psychopathy on judicial restrictiveness may operate through the perceived dangerousness of the youth.     

The validity of the Antisocial Process Screening Device as a self-report measure of psychopathy in adolescent offenders

There is a growing interest in the assessment of adolescent psychopathy to enable early treatment and intervention. Recently, a self-report measure has been developed to assess psychopathic traits in adolescents. The Antisocial Process Screening Device (APSD), a self-report measure of psychopathic traits, and the Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version (PCL:YV), a clinical rating scale, were administered to a sample of 100 incarcerated male adolescent offenders to assess the concurrent validity of the APSD. Results indicated that the APSD had limited concurrent validity with respect to the PCL:YV and that there appears to be a method effect in the measurement of psychopathy. Thus, it appears the APSD did not assess psychopathy in a manner parallel to that of the PCL:YV.     

Risk and dynamics of violence in Asperger's syndrome: A systematic review of the literature

The main purpose of this article is to delineate findings from a review of the literature on the empirical basis for the existence of a relationship between Asperger's syndrome (AS) and violence risk. A second aim is to examine whether certain characteristics of the disorder may have a higher violence-triggering potential. Results of this review show that there are very few empirical studies that confirm a stable link between AS and violence. Only 11 studies involving 22 patients and 29 violent incidents met the criteria for inclusion in the review after the search of the literature. However, a qualitative analysis of the studies yielded some indications of possible patterns of dynamics of violence that may prove to be typical of persons with AS. A tentative comparison of AS and psychopathy indicated that there may be qualitative differences in the characteristics of violent behavior between the disorders. Suggestions for further research are presented.     

Two subtypes of psychopathic violent offenders that parallel primary and secondary variants

Although psychopathy usually is treated as a unitary construct, a seminal theory posits that there are 2 variants: Primary psychopathy is underpinned by an inherited affective deficit, whereas secondary psychopathy reflects an acquired affective disturbance. The authors investigated whether psychopathy phenotypically may be disaggregated into such types in a sample of 367 prison inmates convicted of violent crimes. Model-based cluster analysis of the Revised Psychopathy Checklist (PCL-R; R. D. Hare, 2003) and trait anxiety scores in the psychopathic subgroup (n = 123; PCL-R > or = 29) revealed 2 clusters. Relative to primary psychopaths, secondary psychopaths had greater trait anxiety, fewer psychopathic traits, and comparable levels of antisocial behavior. Across validation variables, secondary psychopaths manifested more borderline personality features, poorer interpersonal functioning (e.g., irritability, withdrawal, poor assertiveness), and more symptoms of major mental disorder than primary psychopaths. When compared with the nonpsychopathic subgroup (n = 243), the 2 psychopathic variants manifested a theoretically coherent pattern of differences. Implications for etiological research and violence prevention are discussed.     

Personality disorders and psychopathy in men convicted for severe intimate partner violence

In this paper, a study of personality disorders and psychopathy in imprisoned male batterers is carried out. A sample of 76 batterers sentenced for a severe offence of violence against their intimate partner was selected. All the participants were assessed with the MCMI-II before beginning a treatment program in prison for gender violence. Likewise, all participants were assessed with the PCL-R in order to identify psychopathic symptoms. According to the results, 86.8% of the sample showed at least one personality disorder. The most prevalent one was the Obsessive-compulsive Personality Disorder (57.8% of cases), followed by the Dependent Personality Disorder (34.2% of cases) and Paranoid Personality Disorder (25%). Regarding psychopathy, the results of PCL-R showed that there were 11 people (14.4% of the sample) who met the criteria for psychopathy or probable psychopathy. Finally, implications of this study for clinical practice and future research in this field are commented upon.     

Identification of the psychopathic batterer: The clinical,legal, and policy implications

A number of theoretical and empirical sources have proposed that a subgroup of domestically violent men exhibit more antisocial behavior, express more generalized violence, and are generally more resistant to mental health intervention than others. In a parallel literature, researchers have identified a subgroup of violent criminal offenders (i.e., psychopaths) that exhibit a number of similar characteristics to this more antisocial/generally violent group of batterers. Moreover, the offender literature on psychopathy describes the violence tendencies, physiological responses, cognitive impairments, interpersonal/affective characteristics, and treatment responsiveness of these individuals in much greater depth and breadth than the current domestic violence literature. The present article seeks to compare and contrast these two literatures, proposing that there is a subgroup of batterers that can be characterized as exhibiting significant psychopathic characteristics. The clinical, legal, and policy implications of identifying a subgroup of batterers in this manner also are explored.     

„Psychopathy“ im Kindes- und Jugendalter

The term psychopathy is defined as a severe personality pathology, which is characterized by extreme aggressive, antisocial and violent behavior as well as affective and interpersonal deficits. In recent years, research into the construct of psychopathy has often focused on the incidence and detection of such pathologies in children and adolescents. In this context, a point of interest is to explore the course and stability of psychopathic personality dimensions throughout youth. Results demonstrate clear evidence for the occurrence of personality traits characteristic for psychopathy in early childhood and adulthood, which facilitates early detection with the aid of age-specific diagnostic instruments.The distinct correlation between psychopathy and severe, repeated and largely treatment refractory violence, which results in substantial public damage, calls for further research in children and adolescents in order to define the construct of psychopathy more precisely, to further illuminate underlying pathologies and consequently develop more specific typologies and effective treatment strategies. To that end, it is of particular importance to correctly capture dimensional factors of psychopathy in youth and to examine their stability throughout stages of adolescent development.     

Psychopathic Traits and Physiological Responses to Aversive Stimuli in Children Aged 9–11 Years

Atypical eletrodermal and cardiovascular response patterns in psychopathic individuals are thought to be biological indicators of fearless and disinhibition. This study investigated the relationship between psychopathic traits and these autonomic response patterns using a countdown task in 843 children (aged 9-10?years). Heart rate (HR) and non-specific skin conductance responses (NS-SCRs) were recorded while participants anticipated and reacted to 105?dB signaled or un-signaled white-noise bursts. Using multilevel regression models, both larger HR acceleration and fewer NS-SCR were found to be significantly associated with psychopathic traits during anticipation of signaled white-noise bursts. However, two divergent patterns appeared for HR and SCR: (1) larger HR acceleration was specific to the callousness-disinhibition factor of psychopathic traits while reduced NS-SCR was only associated with the manipulative-deceitfulness factor; (2) the negative association between the manipulative-deceitfulness factor and NS-SCR was only found in boys but not in girls. These findings replicated what has been found in psychopathic adults, suggesting that autonomic deficits present in children at risk may predispose them to later psychopathy. The divergent findings across psychopathic facets and sexes raised the possibility of different etiologies underlying psychopathy, which may in turn suggest multiple treatment strategies for boys and girls.     

Structural brain abnormalities in psychopaths-a review

The biological basis of psychopathy has not yet been fully elucidated. Few studies deal with structural neuroimaging in psychopaths. The aim of this article is to review these studies in order to contribute to our understanding of the biological basis of psychopathy. Data in the literature report a reduction in prefrontal gray matter volume, gray matter loss in the right superior temporal gyrus, amygdala volume loss, a decrease in posterior hippocampal volume, an exaggerated structural hippocampal asymmetry, and an increase in callosal white matter volume in psychopathic individuals. These findings suggest that psychopathy is associated with brain abnormalities in a prefrontal-temporo-limbic circuit-i.e. regions that are involved, among others, in emotional and learning processes. Additionally, data indicate that psychopathic individuals cannot be seen as a homogeneous group. The associations between structural changes and psychopathic characteristics do not enable causal conclusions to be drawn, but point rather to the important role of biological brain abnormalities in psychopathy. To gain a comprehensive understanding of this, psychopathy must be viewed as a multifactorial process involving neurobiological, genetic, epidemiological and sociobiographical factors.     

Psychopathic Traits Associate Differentially to Anger,Disgust and Fear Recognition among Men and Women

Psychopathy is characterized by deficits in empathy and violation of the rights of others. Recent data link psychopathy-based lack of empathy to deficits in emotion recognition (ER), in particular fear and sadness. However, questions remain about emotions like anger and disgust and some studies even report a positive relationship between psychopathy and ER. Notably, the overwhelming majority of these studies have been conducted only with men, and studies in the general population suggest that women have better ER than men. To our knowledge, only two small studies have explicitly examined ER and psychopathy among women and they did find deficits in anger and disgust recognition. Therefore, mixed findings about ER and psychopathy may be due to gender differences that need to be clarified. This study aimed at bridging this gap using a large sample of 129 male (49 %) and 132 female (51 %) participants who completed psychopathy self-reports, and a computerized facial ER task. Among women there were deficits and advantages in ER: High social dominance and lack of anxiety traits were related to decreased fear and anger recognition respectively. Traits characterized by impulsiveness and rebelliousness were associated with better disgust and anger recognition respectively. For men, psychopathic traits characterized by ruthless manipulation of others, as well as lack of fear, were related to deficits recognizing anger. These results suggest that among women some psychopathic traits may confer an advantage in ER and give impetus for studies examining gender differences in the neurobiological substrates and manifestation of the syndrome.     

A taxometric analysis of psychopathic personality

Although a common assumption throughout much of the professional and popular literature is that psychopaths are qualitatively different from others, very few studies have examined the latent structure of psychopathy. Whether psychopathy is a discrete category or a continuous dimension may have implications for research on the assessment, etiology, and treatment of this disorder. This study examined the latent structure of psychopathy in a sample of 309 jail and prison inmates. Three taxometric procedures were used to analyze indicators drawn from the Psychopathic Personality Inventory (S. O. Lilienfeld & B. P. Andrews, 1996), a self-report instrument. Consistent with prior studies that used other measures of psychopathy, none of the analyses was consistent with a taxonic solution, suggesting that psychopathic personality may be best understood as existing on a continuum.     

Psychopathic traits and men’s anger response to interpersonal conflict: A pilot study

Psychopathy is associated with emotional dysfunction that impedes the experience of emotions such as fear and sadness and has been purported to facilitate violent behavior. However, findings relative to the association between psychopathy and anger have not been reliably substantiated. Theorists have proposed that psychopathy predisposes one to experience greater frustration and anger, whereas other experts have suggested that there is no convincing evidence for this assertion. In the present study, we tested the relationship between psychopathy subfactors and anger subsequent to conflict or non-conflict interactions. Sixty-eight collegiate-men completed the Self-Report Psychopathy Scale and read vignettes depicting either a conflict or non-conflict scenario and were asked to imagine themselves in the situation. Following presentation of the vignettes, participants completed a lexical-decision-task assessing affective states. Results indicated that the psychopathy subfactors demonstrated strong differential associations, where Factor 1 showed negative and Factor 2 showed positive association with anger activation in response to interpersonal conflict. Findings are discussed in terms of the importance of anger as a facilitator of violence in some psychopathic individuals.     

Relationship between psychopathy and indirect aggression use in a noncriminal population

Psychopathy has long been associated with increased use of direct aggression and violence, especially among male inmates. Little research has, of yet, considered the relation between psychopathy and indirect forms of aggression. The current research sought to investigate the relationship between psychopathy and indirect aggression in a noncriminal sample. The results indicated that there was a strong relationship between psychopathic traits and indirect aggression, with strong correlations between indirect aggression and both factor 1 (coldheartedness) and factor 3 (impulsive antisociality). This association remained significant even after the effects of direct aggression had been controlled for. Path analysis indicated that both direct and indirect aggression was underpinned by the same psychopathy factors. This suggests that high psychopathy scorers will utilize direct and indirect aggression equally and, as such, the choice of one type of aggression over the other may be dependant on either situational factors or external moderators. Aggr. Behav. 35:408–421, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.