Predicting Short-Term Institutional Aggression in Forensic Patients: A Multi-Trait Method for Understanding Subtypes of Aggression

Accurately predicting inpatient aggression is an important endeavor. The current study investigated inpatient aggression over a six-month time period in a sample of 152 male forensic patients. We assessed constructs of psychopathy, anger, and active symptoms of mental illness and tested their ability to predict reactive and instrumental aggression. Across all levels of analyses, anger and active symptoms of mental illness predicted reactive aggression. Traits of psychopathy, which demonstrated no relationship to reactive aggression, were a robust predictor of instrumental aggression. This study (a) reestablishes psychopathy as a clinically useful construct in predicting inpatient instrumental aggression, (b) provides some validation for the reactive/instrumental aggression paradigm in forensic inpatients, and (c) makes recommendations for integrating risk assessment results into treatment interventions.

Psychopathy and Stalking

We examined the association between psychopathy, assessed using the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised: Screening Version (Hart et al., Manual for the psychopathy checklist screening version (PCL:SV), 1995), and stalking in 61 men convicted of stalking-related offenses. Psychopathic symptoms were rare, but their presence—especially that of affective deficit symptoms—was associated with victimization of casual acquaintances and with several risk factors from the Guidelines for Stalking Assessment and Management (SAM) (Kropp et al., Guidelines for stalking assessment and management, 2008a), including stalking in violation of supervision orders, degree of preoccupation with victims, and targeting of victims with limited access to external resources. The findings suggest that in spite of their rarity, psychopathic traits may be important in the assessment and management of stalking risk.

Psychopathy and instrumental aggression: Evolutionary, neurobiological, and legal perspectives

In the study of aggression, psychopathy represents a disorder that is of particular interest because it often involves aggression which is premeditated, emotionless, and instrumental in nature; this is especially true for more serious types of offenses. Such instrumental aggression is aimed at achieving a goal (e.g., to obtain resources such as money, or to gain status). Unlike the primarily reactive aggression observed in other disorders, psychopaths appear to engage in aggressive acts for the purpose of benefiting themselves. This is especially interesting in light of arguments that psychopathy may represent an alternative life-history strategy that is evolutionarily adaptive; behaviors such as aggression, risk-taking, manipulation, and promiscuous sexual behavior observed in psychopathy may be means by which psychopaths gain advantage over others. Recent neurobiological research supports the idea that abnormalities in brain regions key to emotion and morality may allow psychopaths to pursue such a strategy—psychopaths may not experience the social emotions such as empathy, guilt, and remorse that typically discourage instrumentally aggressive acts, and may even experience pleasure when committing these acts. Findings from brain imaging studies of psychopaths may have important implications for the law.     

An Indepth Actuarial Assessment for Wife Assault Recidivism: The <Emphasis Type="Italic">Domestic Violence Risk Appraisal Guide</Emphasis>

An actuarial tool, the Ontario Domestic Assault Risk Assessment (ODARA), predicts recidivism using only variables readily obtained by frontline police officers. Correctional settings permit more comprehensive assessments. In a subset of ODARA construction and cross-validation cases, 303 men with a police record for wife assault and a correctional system file, the VRAG, SARA, Danger Assessment, and DVSI also predicted recidivism, but the Hare Psychopathy Checklist (PCL-R) best improved prediction of recidivism, occurrence, frequency, severity, injury, and charges. In 346 new cases, ODARA and PCL-R independently predicted recidivism. An algorithm was derived for a combined instrument, the Domestic Violence Risk Appraisal Guide (DVRAG), and an experience table is presented (N=649). Results indicated the importance of antisociality in wife assault.     

Assessing measurement invariance of PCL-R assessments from file reviews of North American and German offenders

Cross-cultural research on psychopathy necessitates assessment methods that are generalizable across linguistic and cultural differences. Multiple-group confirmatory factor analysis was used to compare the factorial structure of Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) assessments obtained from file reviews of North-American (N = 2622) and German (N = 443) male offenders. The analyses indicated that the 18 item, 4-factor model of the PCL-R obtained with the standard PCL-R protocol (interview and file review) also holds for file review data. On a factor-by-factor level, the data are commensurate with strong factorial invariance of factor loadings and item thresholds for the Interpersonal and Lifestyle factors, and with likely metric invariance for the Affective factor. The Antisocial factor showed structural differences between the two samples. The results imply that cultural or environmental factors more strongly influence the judgment and/or expression of antisociality. Based on the results, cross-cultural comparisons between North-American and German offenders in terms of PCL-R psychopathy should be limited to the Interpersonal and Lifestyle factors. Further research using data obtained through the standard protocol (i.e., interview plus file information) is encouraged.     

Projective risk variables in early adolescence and subsequent disinhibitory psychopathology

The objective was to examine early adolescent projective risk indicators for the development of antisocial behaviour as related to adult personality traits, psychopathy, and violent behaviour over the life span. Assessment data included Rorschach (Rr) ratings (at age 11-14 years), personality inventories (EPQ-I and KSP scales), and a shortened Psychopathy Check List (PCL) (administered at age 32-40 years), obtained from a group of 199 male subjects; and smoking habits (at age 36-44 years) obtained from 125 of those subjects. Results, controlled for intelligence, indicated that the high and very high risk groups, as determined by level of total Rr risk scores, were (1) significantly higher on self-rated IVE Impulsiveness, the anxiety-related KSP Muscular Tension, and nonconformity traits, as compared to the low Rr risk group--the very high risk group also scoring significantly higher on the EPQ Psychoticism scale, related to aggressiveness and cruelty; (2) higher on clinically rated PCL total sum and factor scores; and (3) they were overrepresented among Ss with subsequent violent offence, and Ss with heavy smoking habits. The results are discussed in terms of the possible usefulness of psychodynamic oriented cognitive-emotional indicators in the search for underlying mechanisms in the development of disinhibitory psychopathology.     

Social and emotional detachment in Dutch children

Characteristics associated with psychopathy were, along with the symptoms of aggressive and antisocial behaviour, rated by parents in a community sample of 2535 four-to-eighteen-year-old Dutch children in 2003. An analysis of principal components suggested two dimensions of psychopathic characteristics. The first dimension comprised egocentric characteristics and the second unemotional characteristics. Regression analyses further showed that antisocial behaviour could be predicted by egocentric characteristics, while aggressive behaviour could be predicted by the interaction of egocentric and unemotional characteristics. To avoid unnecessary stigmatisation of youngsters, it is proposed to label the egocentric dimension as the 'social detachment' factor and the unemotional dimension as the 'emotional detachment' factor.     

A Large-Scale Meta-Analysis Relating the Hare Measures of Psychopathy to Antisocial Conduct

The present meta-analysis integrated effect sizes from 95 non-overlapping studies (N=15,826) to summarize the relation between Hare Psychopathy Checklists and antisocial conduct. Whereas prior meta-analyses focused on specific subdomains of the literature, we used broad inclusion criteria, incorporating a diversity of samples, settings, methodologies, and outcomes in our analysis. Our broad perspective allowed us to identify general trends consistent across the entire literature and improved the power of our analyses. Results indicated that higher PCL Total, Factor 1 (F(1)), and Factor 2 (F(2)) scores were moderately associated with increased antisocial conduct. Study effect sizes were significantly moderated by the country in which the study was conducted, racial composition, gender composition, institutional setting, the type of information used to score psychopathy, and the independence of psychopathy and transgression assessments. However, multiple regression analyses indicated that the information used to assess psychopathy did not have a unique influence on effect sizes after accounting for the influence of other moderator variables. Furthermore, racial composition of the sample was related to the country in which the study was conducted, making it unclear whether one or both of these moderators influenced effect sizes. We provide potential explanations for the significant findings and discuss implications of the results for future research.     

Early traumatization and psychopathy in female and male juvenile offenders

Childhood traumatization is expected to have a significant impact on the development of antisocial and aggressive behavior in adulthood. Psychopathy as a syndrome that can predict future violent and aggressive behavior in adults is therefore believed to be associated with early traumatization. The association between early childhood victimization and violence might at least be mediated through psychopathy. The present study examined the relationship between early emotional, physical or sexual trauma and neglect and psychopathy in incarcerated delinquent female and male juveniles using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) and the Psychopathy Checklist—Youth Version (PCL-YV). A sample of detained adolescents (n = 185) was compared to adolescent students (n = 98). Also, gender differences were analyzed with respect to the association of trauma and psychopathy. As expected, our analyses revealed higher scores of traumatization in delinquent juveniles compared to school adolescents. Hypothesized relationships between physical traumatization and the PCL-YV total score could be confirmed among criminal boys, but not among delinquent girls. Results, therefore, indicated that an association exists between early physical, but also emotional traumatic experience and psychopathy in detained boys. In girls, however, other family-related variables, such as non-parental living arrangements, seemed to be more influential in developing the psychopathy syndrome than traumatization.     

Memories of parenting practices are associated with psychopathy in juvenile male offenders

Despite the large body of research documenting parenting practices as risk factors for the development of child and adolescent disruptive behaviour, the association with psychopathy is notably less known. The goal was to examine, in 75 institutionalized juvenile male offenders, the association between self-reported memories of parenting practices during childhood (Alabama Parenting Questionnaire) and psychopathy (Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version). Results showed that ineffective parenting practices as inconsistent discipline and poor monitoring/supervision were significantly associated with increased levels of psychopathic traits. Interestingly, only two of the four facets of the construct, lifestyle and antisocial, were associated with these parenting behaviours. Findings highlight the importance of considering parenting practices in the study of the early development of psychopathy and suggest that the facets could be rooted in distinct underlying etiologic-dispositional factors with differentiated developmental pathways and different psychosocial correlates. The study lends support to the multidimensional approach of psychopathy as a syndrome.