Psychopathy

There have been many studies linking conduct disorder to antisocial personality disorder and sometimes to psychopathy as well. Conduct disorder appears in children and adolescents and involves behavior that violates rights of others and/or societal norms or rules. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV), the individual’s behavior must include actions such as aggression to people or animals, destruction of property, deceitfulness or theft, serious violations of rules, as well as a clinically significant impairment in the adolescent’s social, academic, or occupational functioning. The DSM-IV states that in order for a child or adolescent to be found to be presenting Conduct Disorder he or she must present with three or more of the above listed behaviors in the past twelve months, including at least one in the past six months (McCaullum, pp. 6-12, 2001). Those who present with antisocial personality disorder may or may not present with psychopathy. There are two main assessment devices used to evaluate the level of psychopathy that a person exhibits. The Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) was developed by Robert Hare in 1980 and revised in 1991 (Blair et al, 2005). The Antisocial Process Screening Device (APSD) is another device used to assess psychopathy in adults (Frick & Hare, 2001a). Both of these assessments consist of twenty behavioral items, scored from zero to two, that are used to measure whether or not a person possesses certain traits that, when combined, are common to those of people diagnosed with psychopathy. There have been many research studies conducted over the years concerning the validity and effectiveness of the Psychopathy Checklist- Revised. One such study was aimed at assessing whether or not the level of psychopathy of an individual, as measured by the Psychopathy Checklist- Revised, was correlated to that individual’s probability of violent recidivism (Tengström, Grann,

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