title: Psychopathy and criminal violence: the moderating effect of ethnicity.
abstract: This study aimed to determine the cross-ethnic stability of the predictive relationship of psychopathy for violence. Participants were 424 adult male jail inmates. Psychopathy was assessed using the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised and criminal violence was assessed using a comprehensive database of arrests for violent crimes. Ethnic categories included the groups that make up the vast majority of U.S. inmates: European American (EA, n = 166), African American (AA, n = 174), and Latino American (LA, n = 84). Ethnically aggregated Cox regression survival analyses identified predictive effects for psychopathy. Disaggregated analyses identified ethnic differences: Psychopathy was more strongly predictive of violence among EA (R² = .13, 95% CI [.04, .22], p < .01) relative to AA inmates (R² = .05, 95% CI [.00, .11], p < .01) and was not related to violence among LA participants (R² = .02, 95% CI [.00, .08], p = .22). Receiver operating characteristic curve analyses yielded an equivalent pattern of results. These findings add to a growing literature suggesting cross-ethnic variability in the predictive power of psychopathy for violence.
authors.affiliation: University of British Columbia.
authors.forename: Zach
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Walsh
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D057189:Checklist; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D003415:Crime; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000208:ethnology*; D011329:Prisoners / Q000523:psychology; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D014754:Violence / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult