Violent and aggressive behavior is a subset of antisocial behavior that is of particular
concern to the criminal justice system and to the general public. A challenge facing mental
health professionals and the criminal justice system is to assess—with a reasonable degree of
accuracy—the likelihood that a young offender will recidivate and to arrange appropriate
interventions. Because of its psychometric properties and high predictive validity, the Hare
Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) is being incorporated into risk assessment batteries
for use with adults. The purpose of the study was to extend the risk paradigm to adolescent
offenders, investigating the predictive validity of the Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version
(PCL:YV) from adolescence to adulthood. Subjects were 157 admissions, ages 12-18, referred
to Youth Court Services for psychological or psychiatric assessment. Archival data were used
to complete retrospectively the PCL:YV and to code criminal history and demographic data on
each of the subjects. Follow-up criminal record data were collected, with an average follow-up
time of ten years. Over the follow-up period psychopaths demonstrated a greater risk for
committing violent offences than nonpsychopaths. They committed violent offences at a higher
rate, earlier following their release from custody, and were more likely to escape from custody
than nonpsychopaths. Further, results indicate that PCL:YV score, a difference in performance
- verbal intellectual functioning (P > V Index), and history of self-harm contributed
significantly to the prediction of violent outcome, over and above the contribution of a
combination of criminal-history and demographic variables. Finally, background and
demographic characteristics were compared between violent and nonviolent psychopaths.
Findings are discussed in the context of current conceptualizations of psychopathy and
adolescent antisocial behavior. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UBC/oai:circle.library.ubc.ca:2429/9470 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Gretton, Heather Margaret |
| Source Sets | University of British Columbia |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis/Dissertation |
| Format | 4969206 bytes, application/pdf |
| Rights | For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use. |
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