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Gender differences in psychopathy in a swedish offender sample
Author(s) -
Strand Susanne,
Belfrage Henrik
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
behavioral sciences and the law
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.649
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1099-0798
pISSN - 0735-3936
DOI - 10.1002/bsl.674
Subject(s) - psychopathy , psychology , antisocial personality disorder , clinical psychology , sample (material) , psychiatry , poison control , injury prevention , social psychology , medicine , personality , medical emergency , chemistry , chromatography
In this study we examined gender differences in the PCL:SV employing a variety of statistical methods with two subsets of psychopathic individuals drawn from larger samples of 129 female and 499 male Swedish offenders. The larger samples included forensic psychiatric patients, forensic psychiatric evaluees and criminal offenders. We found gender differences in antisocial behavior, as defined in factor 2 of the PCL:SV, with female psychopaths (PCL:SV≥18) displaying significantly more lying, deceitfulness and lack of control, while male psychopaths were more antisocial as measured by the PCL:SV. We conclude that it might be meaningful to use gender specific definitions in the assessment of psychopathy or, alternatively, slightly revise the diagnostic tools. Our results support the use of the three‐factor model of the PCL‐R and PCL:SV introduced by Cooke and Michie (2001) in female populations. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.