A Latent Profile Analysis of Violent Offenders Based on PCL-R Factor Scores: Criminogenic Needs and Recidivism Risk.

Robert Johann Bernhard Lehmann,Jürgen Biedermann,Andreas Mokros,Robert Douglas Hare,Klaus-Peter Dahle,Craig S Neumann

doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00627

Abstract

Clinicians and theorists have often proposed the two psychopathic subtypes of “primary” and “secondary” psychopathy, with recent research indicating some empirical support for both psychopathy subtypes, though the findings across studies are far from uniform. For the current study, latent profile analysis was used to investigate if homogeneous latent classes exist within a sample of 215 adult male violent offenders from Berlin, Germany. The age of the offenders at the time of the index offense ranged from 19 to 59 years. The results indicated a solution with four latent classes, which we refer to as prototypical psychopaths (LC1), callous-conning offenders (LC2), sociopathic or dyssocial offenders (LC3), and general offenders (LC4). Validation of the four subtypes involved examination of differences on recidivism risk; criminogenic needs; and general, violent, and sexual reoffending. The results also are discussed in terms of the issue of treatment amenability.

Highlights

Robert Johann Bernhard Lehmann 1*, Craig S
The results indicated a solution with four latent classes, which we refer to as prototypical psychopaths (LC1), callous-conning offenders (LC2), sociopathic or dyssocial offenders (LC3), and general offenders (LC4)
The results showed an excellent level of inter-rater agreement, with intra-class correlations for a single measure (ICC) [35] of .96 and .92, respectively, for the Level of Service Inventory—Revised (LSI-R) and Psychopathy Checklist—Revised (PCL-R) total scores

Summary

Introduction

Robert Johann Bernhard Lehmann 1*, Craig S. Neumann 2, Robert Douglas Hare 3, Jürgen Biedermann 4, Klaus-Peter Dahle 5 and Andreas Mokros 6. Clinicians and theorists have often proposed the two psychopathic subtypes of “primary” and “secondary” psychopathy, with recent research indicating some empirical support for both psychopathy subtypes, though the findings across studies are far from uniform. Latent profile analysis was used to investigate if homogeneous latent classes exist within a sample of 215 adult male violent offenders from Berlin, Germany. The results indicated a solution with four latent classes, which we refer to as prototypical psychopaths (LC1), callous-conning offenders (LC2), sociopathic or dyssocial offenders (LC3), and general offenders (LC4). Psychopathic Offender Subtypes with respect to society but loyal to members of their own group Paralleling the clinical descriptions, more contemporary theorists [10, 11] differentiated between primary psychopaths with a congenital affective “deficit” (i.e., genotype) and secondary psychopaths who did not develop basic affective competence due to traumatic interpersonal experiences (i.e., phenotype)

Methods

Results

Conclusion