Abstract
As a result of Kansas v Hendricks, many sex offenders in the U.S. are likely to be civilly committed to mental institutions for indefinite periods, and many others with histories of violent offenses may also be so committed. It therefore becomes critical for mental health professionals to understand the risk factors for re-offending that put the public in jeopardy. The most reliable of these factors is psychopathy, which will here be defined, along with its differentiation from the more commonly diagnosed antisocial personality disorder. The assessment of psychopathy, its relationship to crime—especially, to violent crime, its (non-) responsiveness to the usual treatment, and an outline of a potentially more effective one, are presented. Finally, and particularly in view of its widely accepted validity, the potential for abuse of the PCL-R and :SV are noted.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Barbaree, H., Seto, M., Serin, R., Amos, N., & Preston, D. (1994). Comparisons between sexual and nonsexual rapist subtypes. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 21, 95–114.
Brandt, J. R., Kennedy, W. A., Patrick, C. J., & Curtin, J. J. (1997). Assessment of psychopathy in a population of incarcerated adolescent offenders. Psychological Assessment, 9, 429–435
Brown, S. L., & Forth, A. E. (1997). Psychopathy and sexual assault: Static risk factors, emotional precursors, and rapist subtypes. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 65, 848–857.
Cleckley, H. (1976). The Mask of Sanity, 5th ed. St. Louis, MO: Mosby.
Cooke, D.J. (1998). Psychopathy across cultures. In Cooke, D. J., Forth, A. E., & Hare, R. D. (Eds.), Psychopathy: Theory, Research, and Implications for Society. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer.
Cooke, D. J., Forth, A. E., & Hare, R. D. (Eds.) (1998). Psychopathy: Theory, Research, and Implications for Society. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer.
Cooke, D. J., & Michie, C. (1997). An Item response theory evaluation of Hare's Psychopathy Checklist. Psychological Assessment, 9, 2–13.
Cooke, D.J., Michie, C., Hart, S.D., & Hare, R.D. (1999). Evaluation of the screening version of the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL:SV): An item response theory analysis. Psychological Assessment, 11, 3–13.
Cornell, D., Warren, J., Hawk, G., Stafford, E., Oram, G., & Pine, D. (1996). Psychopathy in instrumental and reactive violent offenders. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 64, 783–790.
Dempster, R. J., & Hart, S. D. (1996, March). Utility of the FBI's Crime Classification Manual: Coverage, reliability, and validity for adolescent murderers. Paper presented at the Biennial Meeting of the American Psychology-Law Society (APA Div. 41), Hilton Head, South Carolina.
Douglas, K.S., Ogloff, J.R., & Nicholls, T.L. (1997, June). Personality disorders and violence in civil psychiatric patients. In C.D. Webster (Chair), Personality Disorders and violence. Symposium conducted at the meeting of the Fifth International Congress on the Disorders of Personality. Vancouver, Canada.
Federal Bureau of Investigation. (1992). Killed in the Line of Duty. Washington, DC: United States Department of Justice.
Forth, A. E., & Burke, H. C. (1998). Psychopathy in adolescence: Assessment, violence, and developmental precursors. In Cooke, D. J., Forth, A. E., & Hare, R. D. (Eds.), Psychopathy: Theory, Research, and Implications for Society (pp. 205–229). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer.
Forth, A.E., Kosson, D., & Hare, R.D. (in press). The Hare Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version. Toronto: Multi-health Systems.
Fulero, S. M. (1995). Review of the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised. In J. C. Conoley & J. C. Impara (Eds.), Twelfth mental measurements yearbook (pp. 453–454). Lincoln, NE: Buros Institute.
Gretton, H., McBride, M., O'Shaughnessy, R., & Hare, R.D. (1999a). A retrospective longitudinal study of recidivism in adolescent offenders. (in preparation).
Gretton, H., McBride, M., O'Shaughnessy, R., & Hare, R.D. (1999b). Psychopathy and recidivism in adolescent sex offenders. (in preparation).
Hare, R. D. (1991). The Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised. Toronto, Ontario: Multi-Health Systems.
Hare, R.D. (1998a). Psychopaths and their nature. Implications for the mental health and criminal justice systems. T. Millon, E. Simonson, M. Burket-Smith, & R. Davis (Eds.), Psychopathy: Antisocial, Criminal, and Violent Behavior (pp. 188–212). New York: Guilford
Hare, R. D. (1998b). Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us. New York: Guilford Press.
Hare, R. D. (1998c). The Hare PCL-R: Some issues concerning its use and misuse. Legal and Criminological Psychology, 3, 101–122.
Hare, R. D., & Hart, S. D. (1995). Commentary on antisocial personality disorder: The DSM-IV field trial. In W. J. Livesley (Ed.), The DSM-IV personality disorders (pp. 127–134). New York: Guilford.
Hare, R. D., Hart, S. D., & Harpur, T. J. (1991). Psychopathy and the DSM-IV criteria for antisocial personality disorder. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 100, 391–398.
Hare, R. D., McPherson, L. E., & Forth, A. E. (1988). Male Psychopaths and their criminal careers. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 56, 710–714.
Harpur, T. J., & Hare, R. D. (1994). The assessment of Psychopathy as a function of age. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 103, 604–609.
Harris, A.J.R., & Hanson, R.K. (1998, October). Supervising the psychopathic sex deviant in the community. Paper presented at 17th Annual Research & Treatment Conference, The Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers, Vancouver, Canada.
Harris, G. T., Rice, M. E., & Cormier, C. A. (1991). Psychopathy and violent recidivism. Law and Human Behavior, 15, 625–637.
Harris, G. T., Rice, M. E., & Quinsey, V. L. (1993). Violent recidivism of mentally disordered offenders: The development of a statistical prediction instrument. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 20, 315–335.
Hart, S.D. (1998). The role of psychopathy in assessing risk for violence: Conceptual and methodological issues. Legal and Criminological Psychology, 3, 121–137.
Hart, S. D., Cox, D. N., & Hare, R. D. (1995). Manual for the Hare Psychopathy Checklist. Screening Version (PCL:SV). Toronto: Multi-Health Systems, Inc.
Hart, S. D., & Dempster, R, J. (1997). Impulsivity and psychopathy. In C. D. Webster & M. A. Jackson (Eds.), Impulsivity: New directions in research and clinical practice (pp. 212–232). New York: Guilford.
Hart, S. D., & Hare, R. D. (1989). Discriminant validity of the Psychopathy Checklist in a forensic psychiatric population. Psychological Assessment: A Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1, 211–218.
Hart, S.D., & Hare, R.D. (1997). Psychopathy: Assessment and association with criminal conduct. In D. M. Stoff, J. Maser, & J. Brieling (Eds.), Handbook of Antisocial Behavior (pp. 22–35). New York: Wiley.
Heilbrun, K., Hart, S. D., Hare, R. D., Gustafson, D., Nunez, C., & White, A. (1998). Inpatient and post-discharge aggression in mentally disordered offenders: The role of Psychopathy. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 13, 514–527.
Hemphill, J.F., Hare, R.D., & Wong, S. (1998). Psychopathy and recidivism: A review. Legal and Criminological Psychology, 3, 141–172.
Hemphill, J.F., Strachan, C., & Hare, R.D. (1999). Psychopathy in female offenders. (in preparation).
Hemphill, J. F., & Wong, S. (1991). Efficacy of the therapeutic community for treating criminal Psychopaths [Abstract]. Canadian Psychology, 32, 206.
Hill, C. D., Rogers, R., & Bickford, M. E. (1996). Predicting aggressive and socially disruptive behavior in a maximum security forensic psychiatric hospital. Journal of Forensic Sciences, 41, 56–59.
Lilienfeld, S. O. (1994). Conceptual problems in the assessment of psychopathy. Clinical Psychology Review, 14, 17–38.
Losel, F. (1998). Treatment and management of psychopaths. In D.J. Cooke, A.E. Forth, & R.D. Hare (Eds.), Psychopathy: Theory, research, and implications for society (pp. 303–354). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer.
Miller, M. W., Geddings, V. J., Levenston, G. K., & Patrick, C. J. (1994, March). The personality characteristics of psychopathic and nonpsychopathic sex offenders. Paper presented at the Biennial Meeting of the American Psychology-Law Society (Div. 41 of the American Psychological Association), Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Ogloff, J. R. P., Wong, S., & Greenwood, A. (1990). Treating criminal Psychopaths in a therapeutic community program. Behavioral Sciences and the Law, 8, 81–90.
Quinsey, V. L. (1990). Sexual violence. In P. Bowden & R. Bluglass (Eds.), Principles and practice of forensic psychiatry (pp. 563–570). Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone.
Quinsey, V. L., Rice, M. E., & Harris, G. T. (1995). Actuarial prediction of sexual recidivism. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 10, 85–105.
Rice, M. E., & Harris, G. T. (1992). A comparison of criminal recidivism among schizophrenic and nonschizophrenic offenders. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 15, 397–408.
Rice, M. E., & Harris, G. T. (1995). Psychopathy, schizophrenia, alcohol abuse, and violent recidivism. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 18, 333–342.
Rice, M. E., Harris, G. T., & Cormier, C. A. (1992). An evaluation of a maximum security therapeutic community for psychopaths and other mentally disordered offenders. Law and Human Behavior, 16, 399–412.
Robins, L. N. (1978). Etiological implications in studies of childhood histories relating to antisocial personality. In R. D. Hare & D. Schalling (Eds.), Psychopathic Behavior: Approaches to Research (pp. 255–271). Chichester, England: Wiley.
Salekin, R.T., Rogers, R., & Sewell, K.W. (1996). A review and meta-analysis of the Psychopathy Checklist and Psychopathy Checklist-Revised: Predictive validity of dangerousness. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 3, 203–215.
Salekin, R.T., Rogers, R., & Sewell, K.T. (1997). Construct validity of psychopathy in a female offender sample: A multitrait-multimethod evaluation. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 106, 576–585.
Salekin, R.W., Rogers, R., Ustad, K.L., & Sewell, K.W. (1998). Psychopathy and recidivism among female inmates. Law and Human Behavior, 22, 109–128.
Serin, R. C., Malcolm, P. B., Khanna, A., & Barbaree, H. E. (1994). Psychopathy and deviant sexual arousal in incarcerated sexual offenders. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 9, 3–11.
Steadman, H., Monahan, J., Applelbaum, P., Grisso, T., Mulvey, E., Roth, L., Robbins, P., & Klassen, D. (1994). Designing a new generation of risk assessment research. In J. Monahan & H. Steadman (Eds.), Violence and Mental Disorder: Developments in Risk Assessment (pp. 287–318). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Stone, M.H. (1998). Sadistic personality in murderers. In T. Millon, E. Simonson, M. Burket-Smith, & R. Davis (Eds.), Psychopathy: Antisocial, Criminal, and Violent Behavior (pp. 346–358). New York: Guilford
Tengström, A., Grann, M., Långström, N., & Kullgren, G. (in press). Psychopathy (PCL-R) as a predictor of violent recidivism among criminal offenders with schizophrenia. Law and Human Behavior.
Toupin, J., Mercier, H., Déry, M., Côté, G., & Hodgins, S. (1996). Validity of the PCL-R for adolescents. In D. J. Cooke, A. E. Forth, J. P. Newman, & R. D. Hare (Eds.), Issues in Criminological and Legal Psychology: No. 24, International Perspectives on Psychopathy (pp. 143–145). Leicester, UK: British Psychological Society.
Webster, C.D., Douglas, K.S., Eaves, D., & Hart, S.D. (1997). HCR-20: Assessing risk for violence-Version 2. Burnaby, BC: Mental Health. Law, and Policy Institute. Simon Fraser University.
Webster, C. D., Harris, G. T., Rice, M. E., Cormier, C. A., & Quinsey, V. A. (1994). The Violence Prediction Scheme: Assessing Dangerousness in High Risk Men. Toronto: Center for Criminology, University of Toronto.
Widiger, T. A., Cadoret, R., Hare, R. D., Robins, L., Rutherford, M., Zanarini, M., Alterman, A., Apple, M., Corbitt, E., Forth, A. E., Hart, S. D., Kultermann, J., Woody, G., & Frances, A. (1996). DSM-IV antisocial personality disorder field trial. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 105, 3–16.
Wintrup, A., Coles, M., Hart, S., & Webster, C. D. (1994). The predictive validity of the PCL-R in high-risk mentally disordered offenders [Abstract]. Canadian Psychology, 35, 47.
Wong, S., & Hare, R.D. (in press). Program Guidelines for the Institutional Treatment of Violent Psychopaths. Multi-Health Systems: Toronto, Canada.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Hare, R.D. Psychopathy as a Risk Factor for Violence. Psychiatr Q 70, 181–197 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022094925150
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022094925150