Psychopathic personality features and risks for criminal justice system involvement among emancipating foster youth

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Abstract

Although there has been a surge of interest in the study of psychopathy among juveniles, few investigations have been initiated on non-correctional samples thus reducing the potential generalizability of findings. The current objective was to examine the construct of psychopathy in a community sample of 404 foster care youths transitioning out of care. To our knowledge, this is the first study to explore psychopathic personality traits among a foster care sample. In total, the models indicated that psychopathic personality traits measured by the PPI-SF Narcissism, PPI-SF Extraversion, PPI-SF Unemotionality, and PPI-SF Fearless-Nonconformity were significant yet inconsistent risk factors for diverse forms of criminal behavior and subsequent involvement with the criminal justice system.

Introduction

Heightened interest in risk assessment by researchers and practitioners has partly fueled interest in the study of psychopathy, a specific personality construct with a long history in the psychological and biomedical sciences (Vaughn and Howard, 2005a, Vaughn and Howard, 2005b). Psychopathy is considered a syndrome of traits comprised of aggression, self-centeredness, callousness, impulsivity, conning, sensation-seeking, interpersonal exploitation, deception, low fear and guilt, and an inability to learn socially approved ways of satisfying immediate needs (Cleckley, 1976, Hare, 1996, Lynam, 2002, McCord and McCord, 1964). The factor structure underlying psychopathy that has been extracted from various measures generally corresponds to the behavioral (i.e., impulsivity and fearlessness), interpersonal (i.e., narcissism and manipulation), and affective (i.e., callous and carefree unemotionality) domains (Cooke and Michie, 2001, Farrington, 2005, Lee et al., 2003, Skeem and Cauffman, 2003).

As a specific form of antisocial personality, psychopathy as a subject of research has experienced a resurgence in recent years, particularly in its application to children and adolescents (e.g., Falkenbach et al., 2003, Farrington, 2005, Frick et al., 2003, Gretton et al., 2004, Salekin and Frick, 2005). Among adolescents, studies have found that psychopathic traits are predictive of future recidivism (Corrado, Vincent, Hart, & Cohen, 2004), institutional violence (Murrie, Cornell, Kaplan, McConville, & Levy-Elkon, 2004), career criminality (Vaughn & DeLisi, 2008), and substance abuse (Mailloux, Forth, & Kroner, 1997). In a review article of violence and adolescent psychopathy, Edens et al., 2001b, Edens et al., 2001a found consistent correlations between measures of violence and psychopathy in 11 studies involving juveniles. In an important study of the risk for violence across a 10-year follow-up period, Gretton and associates (2004) found that high psychopathy scores increased risk for violence after controlling for the relevant covariates of conduct disorder, violence history, and criminal onset. Farrington (2006) used data from the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development, a 40-year prospective longitudinal survey of the criminal careers and social histories of 411 London males and found that high psychopathy scores were retrospectively associated with risk outcomes commonly inhibiting successful adulthood adaptation including more convictions and greater involvement in the criminal justice system (also see DeLisi & Vaughn, 2008).

To date, there is a lack of consensus on diagnostic cutoff scores for psychopathy measures among juveniles and whether psychopathy should be conceptualized as a discrete disorder or as continuously distributed trait (Farrington, 2005, Lilienfeld, 1994). However, recent taxometric research by Murrie et al. (2007) provides strong evidence that psychopathy in juveniles is indeed a continuous trait. For instance, the relationship between the DSM-IV Conduct Disorder diagnosis and psychopathy is asymmetrical. Conduct disorder diagnoses are far more prevalent than psychopathy diagnoses using high score cut-points at least in juvenile justice settings (Forth, 1995). In addition, few studies have compared psychopathy scores with Antisocial Personality Disorder, and in particular Conduct Disorder, in predicting outcomes such as illegally making money, drug selling, co-morbid substance use, and mental health disorders. Given the heterogeneity and emphasis of behavioral features consistent with delinquency that comprises DSM-IV Conduct Disorder, psychopathy traits may provide a more personality focused explanatory tool from which to better understand the development of violence and associated problem behaviors. Psychopathy has been generally viewed as impervious to treatment. Although there is pessimism regarding intervening with psychopathic individuals, a systematic review of 24 studies has shown that many beliefs about treatment resistance are unfounded and that design flaws do not allow the conclusion that treatment cannot work or will make psychopaths worse (D’Silva, Duggan, & McCarthy, 2004). In fact, there have been some assertions that antisocial personality, a behavioral disorder that overlaps with psychopathy, may be preventable (Farrington and Coid, 2003, Harrington and Bailey, 2003).

Section snippets

The current study

Although great strides have taken place with respect to psychopathy research in juveniles, investigations have largely relied on correctional samples thus reducing the generalizability of findings (cf., Frick & Marsee, 2006). The current objective was to examine the construct of psychopathy in a community sample of 404 foster care youth transitioning out of care (i.e., emancipation) particularly given the relatively high rates of abuse and trauma among this group (Weiler & Widom, 1996).

Participants and sampling frame

This study, funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), was a three year longitudinal study of older adolescents in foster care. Between December 2001 and May 2003, all youth turning age 17 in the foster care system in eight Missouri counties were considered for this study. Missouri Division of Family Services (MDFS) case workers screened the youth for potential inclusion in the study; excluding youths with IQ scores below 70 (N = 31), placements over 100 miles from any of the eight

Number of arrests

As revealed in Table 3, results from the negative binomial regression indicate a significant overall model (χ2 = 153.35. df = 14, p < 0.0001). Along with male gender (z = 4.80, p < 0.001), deviant peer affiliations (z = 2.85, p = 0.004), neighborhood disorder (z = 2.66, p = 0.008) PPI-SF narcissism (z = 2.58, p = 0.01) and deficient affect (carefree unemotionality) (z = 5.43, p < 0.001) factors were significant predictors of number of arrests.

Illegally making money, drug selling, and assault with a weapon

For these dependent variables binary logistic regression models (Table 4,

Discussion

Although there has been a surge of interest in the study of psychopathy among juveniles, investigations have been hampered by an over-reliance on correctional samples. The current objective was to examine the construct of psychopathy in a community sample of 404 foster care youths transitioning out of care. To our knowledge, this is the first study to explore psychopathic traits among a foster care sample. In total, the models indicated that psychopathic personality traits measured by the

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    This work was supported by National Institute on Mental Health grant, R01MH 61404.

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