Psychopathy and Violence

The concept of psychopathy has a long and prominent history in psychiatric and psychological literature. Adult psychopathy represents a distinct cluster of affective, interpersonal, and behavioral characteristics (Hare, 1991). Cleckley (1976), in his seminal work, The Mask of Sanity, described the prototypical psychopath as an individual who was superficially charming and intelligent, but dishonest and manipulative. A psychopathic individual is extremely egocentric, rarely feels empathy, and tends not to form lasting attachments to people or principles. The psychopath is prone to "inadequately motivated antisocial behavior," and shows a blatant lack of remorse for harm done to others and a failure to learn from prior experiences. The criminal psychopath has a pattern of offending that is more persistent, severe, violent, and versatile than other criminals (Kosson et al., 1990), tends to recidivate more quickly and more frequently than non-psychopathic offenders (Hart et al., 1988; Serin et al., 1990; Serin et al., 1995), and tends to be less amenable to treatment (Harris et al., 1994; Ogloff et al., 1990; Rice, 1997; Rice et al., 1992).

Hare (1980) developed the Psychopathy Checklist (PCL), and later the Psychopathy Checklist – Revised (PCL-R; Hare, 1991) and Psychopathy Checklist - Revised, second edition (PCL-R; Hare, 2003), further refining the construct of psychopathy into a distinct personality disorder. The PCL-R has become the gold standard for assessing psychopathy in forensic and correctional settings. Over the past 15-20 years, the PCL-R has emerged as a robust predictor of violence and recidivism in adult offenders (for review, see Salekin et al., 1996). For instance, Serin and Amos (1995) followed 299 male federal inmates after their release from prison and reported that 65% of psychopaths, compared to 25% of nonpsychopaths, were convicted of a new crime within three years. Serin, Peters, and Barbaree (1990) administered the PCL-R to 93 federal inmates and found that PCL-R scores predicted recidivism better than a combination of criminal history, demographic variables, and actuarial risk assessments.

There is a large body of research suggesting that there are quantitative and qualitiative differences between psychopathic and non-psychopathic offenders in terms of the violence they perpetrate. Psychopathic offenders are engage in more frequent violence, that is "more likely o be predatory in nature, motivated by readily identifiable goals, and carried out in a callous, calculated manner without the emotional context that usually characterizes the violnce of other offenders" (Hare, 2003, p. 136). Cornell et al. (1996) categorized 106 male offenders into groups of nonviolent offenders, instrumental violent offenders, or reactive violent offenders. Instrumental violence is goal-directed and purposeful (e.g. robbery), while reactive violence is typically a hostile response to provocation. Cornell and collegues conducted tested the hypothesis that instrumental offenders would score higher on the PCL-R than reactive offenders. Results indicated that nstrumental offenders could be reliably distinguished from reactive offenders on the basis of violent crime behavior and level of psychopathy. Group differences could not be attributed to participant age, race, length of incarceration, or extent of prior criminal record.

Dewey Cornell and his colleagues developed a coding guide to categorize violent crimes as instrumental or hostile/reactive forms of aggression for this study. This coding guide is available to researchers, and can be downloaded in PDF format.

Similarly, some studies have found an association between the PCL-R and institutional misconduct, including violence. In a setting such as a prison, where violence is common, it is impressive that the PCL-R has demonstrated even modest predicitve power. For instance, Edens et al. (2002) found a substantial correlation between PCl-R scores and subsequent institutional infractions among a sample of 92 male offenders (See Table 1). In a postdictive study, Hare and McPherson (1984b) divided a group of male offenders into High, Medium, and Low PCL groups. Those in the high PCL group were more likely to have had a report for violent/aggressive behavior than were those in the other groups. In general, there is both predicitve and postdictive research supporting a consistent association between the PCL-R and various measures of insitutional misconduct.

Table 1

Correlations Between the PCL-R and Major Disciplinary Infractions
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PCL-R Score

Note. From Edens et al. (2002). Entries are point-biserial correlations. A value of .25 is significant at the .05 level, .30 at the .01 level, and .35 at the .001 level.

Table 2

The PCL and Percetanges of Inmates Who Displayed Violent and Aggressive Behavior in Prison
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PCL Score

Note. The analysis period was age 16 to 30. Group differences were significant at the p<.001 level for all but attempted suicide, self-mutilation, and aggressive homosexuality. From Hare and McPherson (1984b).

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Link to Robert Hare's Website: www.hare.org