Treatment-Related Changes in Behavioral Outcomes of Psychopathy Facets in Adolescent Offenders

This study examines the association between the facets of psychopathy embedded in the Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version (PCL:YV; Forth et al., Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version, 2003), and changes in institutional behavior and post-treatment violent and general offending in a sample of juvenile delinquent males treated in the Mendota Juvenile Treatment Center (MJTC), an intensive treatment program. Affective, Interpersonal, Behavioral and Antisocial facet scale scores were calculated from items of the Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version (PCL:YV; Forth et al., 2003). Data on daily institutional behavior were collected from treatment records. In order to analyze re-offense patterns, the number and type of new criminal charges were collected over a mean follow-up of 54 months (range = 24–79 months), after the youth was released from custody. The Interpersonal facet of the PCL:YV was significantly related to admission behavior problems, while other facet scores were not. Youth with elevated Interpersonal facet scores showed the greatest improvement in institutional behavior during treatment. Treatment was also associated with a significant decrease in general and violent offending for each facet. The Interpersonal facet of the PCL:YV was found to play a key role in institutional and community violence in this study. Treatment appeared to disrupt the link between institutional and community violence and psychopathy features in this population.