Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the structure of juvenile psychopathy, as measured by the Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version (PCL: YV).
Design/methodology/approach
Using a sample of 2,042 male youths from the USA, Canada, and the UK, the study was a conceptual replication of Bishopp and Hare’s (2008) multidimensional scaling (MDS) analysis of adult male offenders assessed with the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised.
Findings
The scaling analyses generally replicated those obtained by Bishopp and Hare, providing support for a multidimensional, four-factor model of juvenile psychopathy similar to that obtained with adults. However, a small number of items fell outside their predicted regions. Slight differences in the structure of juvenile psychopathy were found for incarcerated and supervised samples of youth, with the four-factor model breaking down slightly for the supervised sample. Item misplacements may indicate that certain items on the PCL: YV are being misinterpreted, reflect different dimensions for different samples, or cannot be reliably measured. Future research should examine these possibilities, with special attention being paid to supervised samples.
Originality/value
To the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first known attempts to use MDS analysis to examine the psychopathy structures that emerge for male juvenile offenders. The greater nuances afforded by using MDS offer a more comprehensive understanding of psychopathy between incarcerated and supervised youth using the PCL: YV.
Keppel and Walter's (1999) classification system for serial sexual murder/murderers is sometimes used as the basis for generating offender profiles despite the fact that it has yet to be empirically validated. This model assumes that serial sexual murder/murderers can be classified into four categories-power-assertive, power-reassurance, anger-retaliation, and angerexcitation-according to the degree of anger and power exhibited by the offender in their criminal and noncriminal lives. Within the current study, assessing the validity of this model involved examining the crimes and backgrounds of 53 serial sexual murderers to determine if the categories proposed by Keppel and Walter could be identified. Proximity Scaling was used to examine the degree of co-occurrence between each and every behavior/characteristic. no evidence of highly cooccurring behaviors/characteristics from Keppel and Walter's proposed categories was found, indicating that the classification system is potentially invalid. results are discussed in terms of their theoretical and practical implications.
Previous research has consistently shown that repeat crime victimization is common.More recently, research has shown that near repeat victimization is also common, whereby targets located in close proximity to previously victimized dwellings/people/vehicles (depending on the crime) are at an increased risk of also being victimized. However, this elevated risk is only temporary and subsides over time. This near repeat space-time clustering has been found across various crime types (e.g., burglary, theft from motor vehicle (TFMV), gun crime, etc.) as well as across jurisdictions. However, the precise space-time patterning of crimes is location-specific.
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