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Psychopathy and offence severity in sexually aggressive and violent youth
Author(s) -
Fougere Amber,
Potter Susan,
Boutilier Joan
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
criminal behaviour and mental health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.63
H-Index - 54
eISSN - 1471-2857
pISSN - 0957-9664
DOI - 10.1002/cbm.735
Subject(s) - psychopathy , psychopathy checklist , seriousness , psychology , recidivism , injury prevention , poison control , human factors and ergonomics , exploratory research , suicide prevention , clinical psychology , antisocial personality disorder , social psychology , personality , medical emergency , medicine , sociology , political science , anthropology , law
Background A large proportion of violent crimes are committed by youths. Youths with psychopathic traits may have a higher risk for recidivism and violence. Aims/hypotheses Our aim was to compare sexually aggressive with violent young men on offence severity and psychopathy. Three hypotheses were proposed: first, young men with previous offences would display a progressive increase in seriousness of offence during their criminal career; secondly, the sexually aggressive and violent young men would not differ in scores on the Hare Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version (PCL:YV); but, thirdly, PCL:YV scores would be positively correlated with the severity of the index crime, as measured by the Cormier–Lang System for Quantifying Criminal History. Methods Information was collected from the files of 40 young men in conflict with the law, and the PCL:Youth Version (YV) rated from this by trained raters. Results The offences of these young men became more serious over time, but we found no association between PCL:YV scores and offence type or seriousness. Conclusions and implications This exploratory research suggests the importance of understanding the progression in offending careers, but a limited role for the PCL:YV in doing so. Given the small sample size, however, and the limit on access to information about details of age, the findings need replication. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.