Effects of psychopathy and violence risk testimony on mock juror perceptions of dangerousness in a capital murder trial

The recent introduction of the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) into the sentencing phase of capital murder trials has heightened concerns about the potentially prejudicial impact of such information on jurors, who might give disproportionate weight to this diagnosis when determining whether a defendant is a “continuing threat to society”. To investigate this issue, 238 undergraduates read a case summary based on US v. Barnette ( ), in which prosecution testimony was presented regarding the presence of a mental disorder (psychopathy, psychosis, or no disorder). Compared to the “no disorder” condition, participants rated psychopathic defendants as more likely to be violent in the future, even though testimony related to level of risk (high or low) was held constant. The difference in perceived dangerousness across the psychopathy and no disorder groups was particularly pronounced when the experts described the defendant as being at low risk. A similar pattern of effects was noted for the psychosis condition, suggesting that the impact of mental disorder testimony on perceptions of dangerousness may not necessarily be specific to the PCL-R.     

Effect of Psychopathy, Abuse, and Ethnicity on Juvenile Probation Officers’ Decision-Making and Supervision Strategies

Probation officers exercise substantial discretion in their daily work with troubled and troubling juvenile offenders. In this experiment, we examine the effect of psychopathic features, child abuse, and ethnicity on 204 officers’ expectancies of, recommendations for, and approach to supervising, juvenile offenders. The results indicate that officers (a) have decision-making and supervision approaches that are affected by a youth’s psychopathic traits and history of child abuse—but not ethnicity; (b) view both abused youth and psychopathic youth as highly challenging cases on a path toward adult criminality; and (c) have greater hope and sympathy for abused youth than psychopathic youth. For abused youth, officers are likely to recommend psychological services and “go the extra mile” by providing greater support, referrals, and networking than is typical for their caseload. For psychopathic youth, officers expect poor treatment outcomes and are” extra strict,” enforcing rules that typically are not enforced for others on their caseload.     

Aggression, psychopathy and brain imaging — Review and future recommendations

Violent behavior appears to result from a complex web of interacting genetic as well as environmental factors. Psychopathy is a strong predictor for relapse in violent acts. The current review shed light on rapidly expanding knowledge in brain imaging related to violent behavior and psychopathy. A literature search was performed in PubMed, Cochrane and PsycInfo combining the key words: mentally disordered offender/aggression/violence/ crime/forensic psychiatry/brain imaging neuroimaging/fMRI/MRI/PET/SPECT/lack of empathy/psychopathy and antisocial personality disorder. The reviewed material, which consisted of 48 articles, indicates a rather strong consensus on the connection between dysfunctional parts of the frontal and temporal lobes and violent antisocial behavior and psychopathy. In future studies, it would be useful to focus on the limbic system and to investigate which parts of the frontal lobes and cerebral networks that are of interest in the psychopathic personality. Moreover, the reviewed material highlights some of the methodological difficulties in this area of research such as selection bias in the recruitment of patients, inadequate matching of control subjects, and sometimes incongruous results. In the future we hope that brain imaging can be used to map biological deviations in different offenders in order to try to learn more about the different mechanisms behind violent behaviors.     

The Evidentiary Introduction of Psychopathy Checklist-Revised Assessed Psychopathy in U.S. Courts: Extent and Appropriateness*

We examine the application of Psychopathy Checklist Revised (PCL-R) assessed psychopathy in U.S. courts from the time of the introduction of the PCL-R in 1991, through the end of 2004, and consider the PCL-R in light of relevant evidentiary standards and the empirical support for the construct of psychopathy. Our review of the Westlaw legal database indicates that the evidentiary introduction of PCL-R assessed psychopathy extends across state and federal jurisdictions, and has increased considerably in recent years. We identify nine contexts in which PCL-R evidence has been introduced and examine the appropriateness of such introduction. In most contexts the PCL-R was considered with regard to the prediction of violence in the community, and in such context the introduction of PCL-R scores appears appropriate, at least with regard to European American male offenders. However, PCL-R assessments may not meet relevant evidentiary standards with regard to the prediction of institutional violence and violence among females, adolescents and ethnic minorities.     

Decoding Deficits of Different Types of Batterers During Presentation of Facial Affect Slides

The ability to decode emotional cues is associated with both personality disorders and violence. This study investigated whether subtypes of intimate partner abusers differ in their ability to label facial affect displays. Intimate partner violent (IPV; n = 69) and nonviolent (NV; n = 32) men were asked to label slides of facial affect. Cluster analyses classified the IPV men into three different types as per the Holtzworth-Munroe and Stuart (1994; Typologies of male batterers: three subtypes and the differences among them. Psychological Bulletin, 116, 476–497) typology: family-only (FO), borderline or dysphoric (BD), and generally violent or antisocial (GVA). Overall, IPV men did not make more errors decoding facial affect slides than did NV men. However, GVA batterers showed deficits while BD batterers were particularly accurate in identifying emotions. Clinical implications are that emotional recognition skills training techniques may be useful for GVA batterers only.     

Cross-ethnic generalizability of the three-factor model of psychopathy: the Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory in an incarcerated sample of native Dutch and Moroccan immigrant boys

Background

Previous research provides support for the existence of the psychopathy construct in youths. However, studies regarding the psychometric properties of psychopathy measures with ethnic minority youths are lacking.

Methods

In the present study, the three-factor structure of the Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory (YPI) was examined for both native Dutch youth (N = 158) and an ethnic minority group, Moroccans (N = 141), in an incarcerated adolescent population in the Netherlands.

Results

Our results showed that the three-factor structure of the YPI is comparable across an ethnic majority and an ethnic minority group in an incarcerated sample in the Netherlands. Moreover, associations between psychopathic traits and mental health problems were similar for both ethnic groups.

Conclusion

The results support the cross-ethnic generalizability of the three-factor model of psychopathy as measured through the Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory.     

Diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder and criminal responsibility

The present study empirically investigates whether personality disorders and psychopathic traits in criminal suspects are reasons for diminished criminal responsibility or enforced treatment in high security hospitals. Recently, the tenability of the claim that individuals with personality disorders and psychopathy can be held fully responsible for crimes has been questioned on theoretical bases. According to some interpretations, these disorders are due to cognitive, biological and developmental deficits that diminish the individual's accountability.The current article presents two studies among suspects of serious crimes under forensic evaluation in a Dutch forensic psychiatric observation clinic. The first study examined how experts weigh personality disorders in their conclusions as far as the degree of criminal responsibility and the need for enforced forensic psychiatric treatment are concerned (n = 843). The second study investigated associations between PCL-R scores and experts' responsibility and treatment advisements (n = 108).The results suggest that in Dutch forensic practice, the presence of a personality disorder decreased responsibility and led to an advice for enforced forensic treatment. Experts also take characteristics of psychopathy concerning impulsivity and (ir)responsibility into consideration when judging criminal accountability. Furthermore, they deem affective deficiencies sufficiently important to indicate suspects' threat to society or dangerousness and warrant a need for forensic treatment.     

Examining gender as moderating the association between psychopathy and substance abuse

Previous research has shown a significant association between psychopathy and substance abuse. To date, these associations have not been compared between men and women in forensic or correctional samples, an important topic in light of some empirical findings indicating that psychopathy manifests differently across gender in other contexts. The current study was designed to address this gap in the literature using archival data sets consisting of four large samples derived from forensic, correctional, and university settings, with different measures for psychopathy, alcohol, and substance use. As expected, psychopathy (particularly traits reflective of disinhibition/social deviance) was significantly and moderately correlated with alcohol and substance abuse in all four samples; however, with one minor exception, hierarchical regression analyses revealed no significant moderating effects of gender on these associations. These findings indicate that, although psychopathy may be manifested differently across gender in some ways, substance abuse is likely not one of them.