The role of symptoms of psychopathy in persistent violence over the criminal career into full adulthood

Can the causal mechanisms underlying chronic, serious, and violent offending trajectories be elucidated using the psychopathy construct?

“…Certainly, we are not arguing that individuals with psychopathy fit neatly into one of three offending trajectories, nor are we arguing that CSV offending trajectories can be universally identified. However, we believe that the evidence presented in this issue McCuish et al, 2015) and elsewhere (e.g., Jennings & Reingle, 2012;Piquero, 2008) provide tentative support for the assertion that the criminal behavior patterns of some offenders are best characterized by either a chronic, serious, or violent offending trajectory.…”

“…A greater challenge has been identifying covariates that help explain these trajectories (Blokland, Nagin, & Nieuwbeerta, 2005;Day et al, 2010;Fergusson, Horwood, & Nagin, 2000;Landsheer & Dijkum, 2005;Nagin, Farrington, & Moffitt, 2005;Odgers et al, 2008;van der Geest, Blokland, & Bijleveld, 2009;van Domburgh, Vermeiren, Blokland, & Doreleijers, 2009;Ward et al, 2010). The related major theme of this article is that symptoms of psychopathy can be employed to account for some of these offending trajectories (see also Corrado et al, 2015;McCuish et al, 2014McCuish et al, , 2015.…”

“…A rival plausible explanation for the apparently limited utility of psychopathy as an explanation of even CSV offending trajectories (see Corrado et al, 2015;McCuish et al, 2014McCuish et al, , 2015Piquero et al, 2012) is that researchers have relied predominantly on PCL instruments. This over-reliance on one instrument suggests that the limited evidence for interpersonal and affective symptoms as predictive of offending outcomes is due to the inadequacy of psychopathy measurement, rather than the inadequacy of the psychopathy construct.…”

“…Finally, McCuish et al (2015) identified a trajectory of offenders involved predominantly (but not exclusively) in acts of violence. Most importantly, although evidence has been presented indicating that higher scores on measures of psychopathy were related to each of the CSV trajectories McCuish et al, 2014McCuish et al, , 2015Piquero et al, 2012), the lifestyle and antisocial factors of psychopathy, as determined by the PCL, were primarily responsible for these relationships. In the next section, we look beyond symptoms specified by the PCL and specify our hypotheses regarding the causal mechanisms for CSV offending trajectories by referring to symptoms described by the CAPP model of psychopathy.…”

Introduction and validation of Psychopathic Personality Traits Scale (PPTS) in a large prison sample

“…Item generation for the PPTS relied on theoretical notion and discussions with a panel of experts (three criminal/forensic psychologists and one research methodologist). Further, in light of recent empirical evidence that psychopaths are likely to engage in a range of criminal/antisocial and non-criminal/antisocial activities (e.g., DeLisi, 2009;McCuish et al, 2015;McCuish, Corrado, Lussier, & Hart, 2014;Skeem & Cooke, 2010a, b), items were cast to reflect knowledge/skills and attitudes/beliefs rather than behaviour.…”