The relationship between juvenile psychopathic traits, delinquency and (violent) recidivism: A meta-analysis

Abstract

A meta-analysis of k = 53 studies containing 60 non-overlapping samples and 10,073 participants was conducted to investigate whether psychopathy was associated with delinquency and (violent) recidivism in juveniles. The results showed that psychopathy was moderately associated with delinquency, general recidivism, and violent recidivism. Moderator effects revealed that various study and participant characteristics influenced the strength of the association between psychopathy, delinquency, and (violent) recidivism. It was concluded that screening for the (early) detection of psychopathy is important, as delinquent behavior and recidivism can be predicted from psychopathy as early as the transition from middle childhood to adolescence.

Interpersonal and Affective Dimensions of Psychopathic Traits in Adolescents: Development and Validation of a Self-Report Instrument

“…There are also a number of significant assessment issues that remain unresolved [5,29], including that little psychometric data on psychopathy measures exist [29,30], and the data that do exist suggest significant limitations to almost all psychopathy measures [5]. The main contention has been with the conceptual and empirical properties of the instruments constructed to assess psychopathy in youth, in that adapting adult measurement tools for use with young people, particularly through "downward extensions" is inappropriate [11,29,31,32].…”

“…This reduced the number of items to 42 (overall Cronbach's alpha coefficient =.92). An exploratory factor analysis was then Three of these factors Callous-Unemotional, Narcissism, and Impulsivity are found in most models of adult and juvenile psychopathy and while there is disagreement in the literature on the number of psychopathic traits [50] most studies report a three factor structure [5].…”

“…Developing age appropriate measures (as described here) that provide insight into the developmental trajectory of juvenile psychopathy is important for potential early identification and intervention [4], even though problems exist with its assessment and diagnosis in youth [5]. Moreover, to understand the full breadth of the manifestation of psychopathy and to gain insight into the relation between psychopathic traits and maladaptive behaviors in society there is a need to focus on non forensic samples [11,36], particularly as the behavioral characteristics associated with psychopathy are thought not to form the core of the psychopathy construct [25].…”

“…Much is known about psychopathy in adults and in particular those who are incarcerated [3]. Although psychopathic traits are visible in children and adolescents [4,5] and studies show a relationship between psychopathic traits and antisocial behavior in delinquent and non-delinquent youth [5], comparatively little is known about the construct in non-incarcerated populations [6].…”

“…In such settings where records may be unavailable and assessment resources limited, self-report screening devices may be most appropriate [30] despite concerns such as the potential for response distortion and lack of comprehensive content validity [5,14,38]. However, self-report measures are an economical [39] and effective means of obtaining an accurate insight into the subjective dispositions (e.g., remorselessness, grandiosity, and lack of empathy) that can be difficult to obtain from third parties such as teachers and parents [40,41].…”