Psychopathy in adolescence and criminal recidivism in young adulthood: longitudinal results from a multiethnic sample of youthful offenders.
Very few studies to date have examined the long-term predictive validity of psychopathy among juveniles. The current study reports general and violent recidivism data for an ethnically heterogeneous sample of male offenders (n = 75) who had been administered the Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version (PCL: YV) in 1996 when they were on average 16 years of age. Neither total scores nor factor scores of the PCL: YV predicted general or violent reconvictions throughout this time frame. These modest effects underscore recent concerns raised about the utility of psychopathy as a risk factor for future criminality, particularly among multiethnic offender samples.
Edens
John F
JF
Department of Psychology, Southern Methodist University, USA.
Cahill
Melissa A
MA
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000987:Antisocial Personality Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology; D003417:Criminal Psychology / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007604:Juvenile Delinquency / Q000208:ethnology / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000523:psychology*; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D010552:Personality Assessment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012008:Recurrence; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012307:Risk Factors; D012933:Social Identification; D015206:Southwestern United States