NCJ Number
190204
Journal
Criminal Justice and Behavior Volume: 28 Issue: 4 Dated: August 2001 Pages: 427-449
Date Published
August 2001
Length
23 pages
Annotation
This study examined psychopathy and recidivism in adolescent sex offenders.
Abstract
Psychopathy, as measured by the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R), has emerged as one of the most important factors in understanding and predicting adult criminal behavior, including sex offending. The PCL-R is a 20-item clinical rating scale designed to assess the traditional construct of psychopathy. In this study, extensive file information was used to score a youth version of the PCL-R (the PCL:YV) for 220 adolescent males in an outpatient sex offender treatment program in British Columbia between January 1985 and April 1994. Charges and convictions, such as violent and sexual offenses or escapes from custody and probation violations, were coded for an average of 55 months following cessation of treatment. The hypothesis was that offenders identified as psychopathic, particularly those with phallometric evidence of deviant sexual arousal, would be more likely than other offenders to commit further sexual, violent, and nonviolent offenses. Results showed that the PCL-YV was positively and significantly related to total, violent, and nonviolent reoffense rates. Offenders with a high PCL:YV score and penile plethysmographic evidence of deviant sexual arousal prior to treatment were at very high risk for general reoffending. These results suggested that psychopathy might have much the same implications for the criminal justice system in adolescent offenders as it did in adult offenders. 6 figures, 1 table, 1 note, and 52 references