Psychopathic traits as predictors of future criminality, intimate partner aggression, and substance use in young adult men.

Abstract

This study examined the prospective relation between Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory (YPI) scores and various negative outcomes in a community sample of young men. Official criminal records and self-reported outcomes, including criminality, physical and relational aggression against intimate partners and excessive substance use, were obtained on average 5.4 years (records) and 3.5 years (self-reports) after the YPI assessment. Results showed that psychopathic traits measured with the YPI (approximately at age 25) did not significantly contribute to the prediction of future official criminal charges and self-reported crime, physical aggression against intimate partners, and excessive alcohol and marijuana use, after controlling for several covariates. However, results also showed that men with higher scores on the YPI were more likely to commit future acts of relational aggression against their partner, even after controlling for prior relational aggression. This novel finding needs replication, though, and -for now- does not jeopardize the overall conclusion that psychopathic traits as measured with the YPI hardly predict over and above prior criminality and aggression. Altogether, the findings of the present study and their consistency with past research suggest that one should rethink the role of psychopathy measures for risk assessment purposes, at least when these measures do not index prior criminality.

Psychopathy as a Predictor Variable of The Disposition to Steal

“…Perhaps, the fact of having the disposition to steal, in a given moment, or the planning of a theft/robbery, involves lying, deceiving, defrauding the trust of others, and probably also requires a degree of underestimation of the ability of the deceived ones to realize of the intentions of the scammers, or that when the deceived ones become able to realize of the intentions of the scammers, they (the scammers) will be already out of reach; apparently, these considerations might be operating both in the people of the general community prone to stealing, as well as in the group of prisoners, but to a greater degree in the latter group. Finally, owing to the contradictory nature of the reported findings about the importance of the affective and interpersonal dimensions of psychopathy as a risk factor to predict criminal behavior, it is probably better to wait for more research to be done about this matter before taking a decision in favor or against these empirical findings (Colins, Andershed, & Pardini, 2015).…”

“…Nonetheless, several studies found that the interpersonal dimension of psychopathy had a better predictive utility for future criminal behavior than the affective dimension (Colins, Noom, & Vanderplasschen, 2012;Theobald et al, 2016;Vahl et al, 2014), and even in other studies, those dimensions did not add any predictive value to that of past personal criminal records (Colins, Andershed, & Pardini, 2015). Therefore, this study was performed in order to clarify to some extent these inconsistencies and contradictions in the evidence of the relationship between the components of psychopathy and the disposition to steal.…”

Development and Initial Validation of an Inconsistent Responding Scale for the Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory

“…Hillege, Das, and de Ruiter (2010) also reported that scores on the Dutch version of the YPI were related to self-reported adolescent substance abuse. Most recently, Colins, Andershed, and Pardini (2015) reported that the YPI was predictive of relational aggression, but not official or self-reported crime, using data from the Pittsburgh Youth Study. In terms of convergent validity, various research findings (e.g., Ansel, Barry, Gillen, & Herrington, 2014;Campbell, Doucette, & French, 2009) indicate that the YPI correlates with other measures of psychopathy, such as the Psychopathic Personality Inventory-Revised (PPI-R; Lilienfeld & Widows, 2005) and the Antisocial Process Screening Device (APSD; Frick & Hare, 2001).…”

Examining the Caring-Uncaring Emotional (CUE) Inventory as a Measure of Affective, Callous-Unemotional Psychopathy Traits in a Community Sample of Adults

“…An affective dimension of psychopathy has been associated with externalizing behaviors in adults and in youths (Frick & White, 2008;Frick et al, 2014;Kahn et al, 2013;Kimonis et al, 2013;Kimonis et al, 2014;Lynam et al, 2011;Salekin et al, 2014). As noted by Colins et al (2015), the assessment of affective psychopathy may be relevant for risk assessment purposes and for intervention and treatment purposes. Existing psychopathy measures of adults and youth typically are designed to broadly encompass the interpersonal, affective, and behavioral/antisocial dimensions of psychopathy.…”