Variants of psychopathy in Chinese male offenders: A latent profile analysis in a large prison sample

Abstract

The current study aimed to identify meaningful subtypes of psychopathic traits among male offenders. A Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) based on the scores of the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale was performed in a large sample of Chinese male prisoners (N = 3375, M age = 36.03, SD = 9.50). Results of the LPA revealed the existence of four profiles: “moderate psychopathy group” (59.5%); “low psychopathy group” (19.5%); “high psychopathy-moderate callousness group” (14.7%); and “low psychopathy-high callousness group” (6.3%). Using the modified Bolck-Croon-Hagenaars (BCH) and categorical distal variable (DCAT) methods, we found that these profiles differed on multiple outcome variables including risk for recidivism, anxiety, depression, reactive aggression and proactive aggression. Overall, findings indicate that the variants of psychopathy found in western incarcerated populations could largely be generalized to the non-western populations, and for the first time suggest that a special profile with low total psychopathy but high callousness traits might exist among male offenders.