NCJ Number
247390
Journal
Aggression and Violent Behavior Volume: 19 Issue: 3 Dated: May/June 2014 Pages: 191-195
Date Published
June 2014
Length
5 pages
Annotation
This article presents a comprehensive review of the literature examining psychopathy and the difficulties related to its concept, assessment, and intervention.
Abstract
As noted in this article, the concept of psychopathy has been studied over many decades through clinical and empirical studies. Psychopathy involves a set of personality disruptive traits and antisocial behavior that can be used to characterize certain behavioral and emotional patterns in individuals. The article discusses the development of the psychopathy construct as well as research that has identified other biological, cognitive, affective, and behavioral characteristics of antisocial personalities that can be associated with psychopathy. The article highlights problems and difficulties that have arisen in the research, such as how to define the operational limits of psychopathy, how to develop valid self-report measures for use in questionnaires, and ensuring the consistency of the PCL-R (Personality Checklist-Revised) criteria for the classification of subjects with psychopathy. Despite these problems, the authors contend that research needs to continue in order to ensure early prevention and treatment of individuals that may be at risk for psychopathy. References