Psychopathy Profiles and Personality Assessment Inventory Scores in a Sex Offender Risk Assessment Field Setting

Abstract

A growing body of research suggests there are identifiable psychopathy subtypes among offenders scored on Hare’s Psychopathy Checklist–Revised (PCL-R; Hare, 2003). We used latent profile analysis to examine the generalizability of these subtype findings to PCL-R scores ( N = 615) assigned in a sex offender risk assessment field setting and to examine how offender subtypes differ on measures of comorbid psychopathology, risk, and treatment amenability from the Personality Assessment Inventory. Consistent with prior research, we identified four subtypes when using PCL-R scores from all offenders: Prototypic psychopathy ( n = 239, 38.9%), callous-conning ( n = 154, 25.0%), sociopathic ( n = 96, 15.6%), and general offenders ( n = 126, 20.5%). Prototypic and sociopathic subtypes exhibited the highest levels of comorbid psychopathology and risk for potential violence. We identified classes consistent with primary ( n = 66, 36.7%) and secondary ( n = 114, 63.3%) psychopathy among offenders with PCL-R total scores ≥ 25, and found higher levels of comorbid psychopathology and potential for violence among those in the secondary psychopathy class. Findings provide support the generalizability of existing PCL-R subtype findings to field scores and show how those with similar PCL-R total scores may differ on scores from commonly used multiscale inventories.

Validating latent profiles of the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised with a large sample of incarcerated men.

“…C1 also had higher scores on anxiety than the other profiles and a higher level of somatization than C4. This pattern is consistent with the finding by McCallum et al (2022) that Prototypic Psychopathy was associated with the most PAI psychopathology and internalizing features.…”

“…In other words, individuals in the Externalizing profile were nearly as callous as those in C2, though less superficially charming, deceptive, and manipulative. Such score differences may be attributable to sample differences, ROY, NEUMANN, AND HARE 6 in particular, the "mixtures" of various subtypes within correctional, forensic psychiatric, sex offender, or violent offender populations (Hare et al, 2018;Lehmann et al, 2019;McCallum et al, 2022;Neumann et al, 2016).…”

“…The labels assigned to these classes were as follows: Prototypical (or, more recently, Prototypic ) psychopathy (C1; elevations on all factors); Callous–Conning (C2; relative elevations on the Interpersonal and Affective factors); Sociopathic or Externalizing (C3; relative elevations on the Lifestyle and Antisocial factors); and General Offender (C4; low scores on all factors). Several investigators have replicated these PCL-R profiles among men convicted of sexual offenses (Krstic et al, 2018; McCallum et al, 2022), forensic psychiatric patients (Klein Haneveld et al, 2018), and men convicted of violent offenses (Lehmann et al, 2019). Using LPA, Olver et al (2020) identified three PCL-R subtypes (Prototypic, Externalizing, and General Offender) in a sample of 385 men convicted of violent offenses.…”

“…We conducted an LPA of the four PCL-R factors to determine the optimal number of subtypes within the total sample, consistent with previous research (e.g., Hare et al, 2018, 2022; Klein Haneveld et al, 2018; Krstic et al, 2018; Lehmann et al, 2019; McCallum et al, 2022; Neumann et al, 2016). LPA is a variant of latent class analysis based on observed continuous rather than categorical variables.…”

“…The Externalizing profile had higher ratings of fearlessness and BAS overreactivity than the Callous–Conning profile. In a PCL-R study of men convicted of sexual offenses, McCallum et al (2022) found that Class 1 had the highest elevations on indices of both internalizing (e.g., anxiety, somatization) and externalizing (e.g., antisocial behavior) psychopathology and personality disturbances, as measured with the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI; Morey, 2007). The pattern of correlates with the Externalizing profile (C3) was similar to that of C1, although attenuated.…”