Psychopathy and offence severity in sexually aggressive and violent youth

Abstract

A large proportion of violent crimes are committed by youths. Youths with psychopathic traits may have a higher risk for recidivism and violence. Our aim was to compare sexually aggressive with violent young men on offence severity and psychopathy. Three hypotheses were proposed: first, young men with previous offences would display a progressive increase in seriousness of offence during their criminal career; secondly, the sexually aggressive and violent young men would not differ in scores on the Hare Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version (PCL:YV); but, thirdly, PCL:YV scores would be positively correlated with the severity of the index crime, as measured by the Cormier-Lang System for Quantifying Criminal History. Information was collected from the files of 40 young men in conflict with the law, and the PCL:Youth Version (YV) rated from this by trained raters. The offences of these young men became more serious over time, but we found no association between PCL:YV scores and offence type or seriousness. This exploratory research suggests the importance of understanding the progression in offending careers, but a limited role for the PCL:YV in doing so. Given the small sample size, however, and the limit on access to information about details of age, the findings need replication.