NCJ Number
190057
Journal
Criminal Behavior and Mental Health Volume: 11 Issue: 1 Dated: 2001 Pages: 27-37
Date Published
2001
Length
11 pages
Annotation
This study investigated the psychometric properties of Hare's Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PLC-R), when scored using casenotes only, in a British high security hospital population.
Abstract
The study sample consisted of 89 male patients who were rated on the PCL-R, an internationally applied method of assessing and classifying individuals who suffer from psychopathic disorder. All of the subjects in the sample had received the legal classification of "psychopathic disorder" under the Mental Health Act (England and Wales) 1983. The patients were admitted to the hospital between May 1972 and November 1991. The subjects were scored retrospectively on the PCL-R from their medical files only. The psychometric properties of the PCL-R were then analyzed. The findings indicated that the instrument, when rated by using casenotes only, had satisfactory internal reliability. In such circumstances, its factor structure was similar to that reported by Hare (1991) in a forensic psychiatric institute sample and slightly less compared with samples composed predominantly of prisoners. The data from this study supported the use of the PCL-R as a reliable instrument for assessing psychopathy even when a full interview was not available; however, clear differences emerged when the PCL-R was used in different samples, and this study provided further evidence of the need to ensure that relevant population norms were used. Patients should be compared with other patients, rather than with prisoners, and vice versa. 3 tables and 34 references