title: Psychopathic traits in young offenders vs. non-offenders in similar socioeconomic condition.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To analyze the differences in psychopathic traits between offender and non-offender youths with similar socioeconomic backgrounds.
  
  
  METHODS
  The Psychopathy Checklist Revised (PCL-R) scale was used to identify whether 39 young offenders with no history of mental disorders or criteria for psychopathy exhibited differences in its total score, and specifically for factor 1 or factor 2 of this scale, when compared with 32 other young people, living in similar socioeconomic conditions, who had not committed offenses.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We observed statistically significant between-group differences (p < 0.01) in mean PCL-R scores, with a mean score of 13.4 in the offender group vs. 2.1 in the non-offender group. We also detected significant between-group differences when we analyzed mean factor 1 (p < 0.01) and factor 2 (p < 0.01) scores separately. Although the groups exhibited statistically significant difference in educational attainment, between-group comparison of mean PCL-R scores controlling for educational attainment by analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) showed that the difference in PCL-R scores remained statistically significant (p < 0.01).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We conclude that, in this sample, the presence of both primary (interpersonal/affective characteristics) and secondary (lifestyle/antisocial behavior) psychopathic traits differed between offender and non-offender youths, even when excluding psychopathy and other mental disorders from the assessments. These results suggest a need for wide-ranging interventions, not restricted to socioeconomic aspects, for the management of juvenile delinquency.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychiatry, Hospital das Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo (HCFMUSP), São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Gustavo B
authors.initials: GB
authors.lastname: Castellana
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychiatry, HCFMUSP, São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Daniel M de
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Barros
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychiatry, HCFMUSP, São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Antonio de P
authors.initials: Ade P
authors.lastname: Serafim
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Universidade de São Paulo (USP), São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Geraldo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Busatto Filho
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000987:Antisocial Personality Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D001938:Brazil; D057189:Checklist; D057237:Criminals / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007604:Juvenile Delinquency / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D010555:Personality Inventory; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D055815:Young Adult