Is the Revised Psychopathy Checklist Clinically Useful for Adolescents?

Abstract

Recent studies have provided evidence for the reliability and validity of Hare's Psychopathy Checklist, Revised (PCL-R) for forensic samples. The present study investigated PCL-R psychometric properties among Caucasian and African-American adolescent males from forensic and school settings. The clinical utility of the PCL-R was investigated in terms of predicting future delinquency above and beyond data that are more readily available. Good reliability and validity for the PCL-R were found. PCL-R Total and Factors scores were greatest for participants with conduct disorder, followed by those with oppositional defiant disorder, with the smallest scores observed for participants with neither disorder. In a 1-year follow-up, PCL-R scores accounted for a unique proportion of the variance in juvenile criminal justice sentencing above and beyond the baseline number of delinquent acts recorded in juvenile criminal justice records and above a baseline disruptive behavior diagnosis continuum score. Compared to conduct disorder diagnosis, the PCL-R psychopath threshold score provided much better sensitivity with only slightly worse specificity for predicting delinquency during the 1-year follow-up.

Psychopathy and behavioral correlates of victim injury in serious juvenile offenders

“…Psychopathy has shown undeniable links to violent and aggressive behavior in both adults and adolescents [Vitacco and Vincent, 2006]. Studies using the most valid and reliable indicator of psychopathic traits, the Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version [PCL:YV; Forth et al, 2003] have found it to be strongly related to both general and violent recidivism [e.g., Catchpole and Gretton, 2003;Ridenour et al, 2001]. In retrospective follow-backs, the PCL:YV was related to violent behavior at both 5-year [Gretton et al, 2001] and 10-year periods [Gretton et al, 2004].…”

Nipping psychopathy in the bud: an examination of the convergent, predictive, and theoretical utility of the PCL‐YV among adolescent girls

“…Although researchers have begun to test the predictive utility of the PCL-YV with male adolescents (Forth & Burke, 1998;Ridenour, Marchant, & Dean, 2001) and adult women (Forth, 1996;Rutherford, Cacciola, Alterman, & McKay, 1996: Salekin, Rogers, Ustad, & Sewell, 1998, there are no published studies of recidivism among female adolescents. As previously noted, experts in risk assessment have stated that male-based instruments are likely to function similarly within female populations (Hare, 1991;Webster, 1999).…”

Examining the Science and Practice of Violence Risk Assessment with Female Adolescents.

“…A number of studies using the Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version (PCL:YV; Forth, Kosson, & Hare, 2003) have reported similar psychometric properties to the PCL-R (Hare, 1991) and found that male juveniles scoring high on the PCL:YV are similar to adult male psychopaths with respect both to psychological correlates and behavioral characteristics (see Vincent & Hart, 2002, for a review). The PCL-YV has also demonstrated predictive utility within short-term prospective studies of male adolescents (Forth, Hart, & Hare, 1990;Ridenour, Marchant, & Dean, 2001). However, a review of published PCL-YV studies indicates that only 6 of the 34 studies completed to date have included females, with sample sizes ranging from 11 to 80 females (Forth et al, 2003).…”