Psychopathy as a Risk Factor for Violent Recidivism: Investigating the Psychopathy Checklist Screening Version (PCL:SV) and the Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality (CAPP) in a Forensic Psychiatric Setting

Abstract

A robust relationship has been established between psychopathy and violence, and psychopathy is considered essential in the process of violence risk assessment. This study presents data on a patient sample from a forensic psychiatric unit in Denmark. All patients were assessed for psychopathy using the Psychopathy Checklist Screening Version (PCL:SV) and the Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality (CAPP). After a follow-up period of 5.7 years, recidivism outcomes were obtained from the Danish National Crime Register. Both psychopathy measures were related to a more severe and versatile criminal career as well as to violent recidivism. Overall, the predictive accuracy of violent recidivism of the two measures was good, and no significant difference was found in terms of predictability. The newly developed CAPP could be a promising clinical risk management tool in terms of its comprehensiveness. Its validity needs to be further explored, but at least its ability to predict violence similar to the PCL:SV is supported by the present study.

Explicating the Construct of Psychopathy: Development and Validation of a Conceptual Model, the Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality (CAPP)

“…At the time of writing, translations into 12 languages are complete (e.g., Norwegian, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Danish, Russian, Lithuanian, Persian, Hungarian, Thai, Afrikaans, Sesotho) and translations into a further eight languages are underway (e.g., Japanese, Finnish, Te Reo). Research is ongoing with these versions (e.g., Hoff et al, 2012;Pedersen et al, 2010;Stoll et al, 2011). The overarching conclusion of the translators is that, while the process of translation is challenging, it is nonetheless possible to find similar networks of trait descriptive adjectives representing this disorder within these languages.…”

“…The temporal focus in this version of the CAPP, the Institutional Rating Scale, is the previous six to twelve months. A lifetime version has also been developed (Dawson et al, 2012;Pedersen et al, 2010). The procedure has the flexibility to be adapted to a time frame that has relevance in a particular clinical setting or the particular clinical question being asked.…”

Capturing clinical complexity: Towards a personality-oriented measure of psychopathy

“…With regard to validation evidence, investigations of the concurrent validity of the CAPP Interview in relation to the PCL-R (Hare, 1991(Hare, , 2003 and its screening (PCL:SV; Hart, Cox, & Hare, 1995) and youth versions (PCL:YV; Forth, Kosson, & Hare, 2003) have been undertaken, respectively, by Cooke (2011), Cooke et al (in preparation), and Pedersen, Kunz, Rasmussen, and Elsass (2010).…”

“…This can provide an understanding of change over time. However, a lifetime version has also been developed and researched (Dawson, McCuish, Hart, & Corrado, 2012;Pedersen, Kunz, Rasmussen, & Elsass, 2010). The CAPP assessment procedure has the flexibility to be adapted to a time frame that has relevance in a particular clinical setting.…”

“…Both the internal consistency reliability and inter-rater reliability of an earlier version of the interview -the CAPP: Institutional Rating Scale (CAPP-IRS) -using lifetime ratings have been evaluated in a sample of adult Danish forensic psychiatric patients (Pedersen, Kunz, Rasmussen, & Elsass, 2010), and in serious and violent young offenders in Canada (Dawson et al, 2012;McCormick, Corrado, & Hart, 2008). Other work has evaluated reliabilities of CAPP-IRS sixmonth ratings in a large sample of forensic psychiatric patients and prisoners in the UK (Cooke, 2011;Cooke, Hart, Michie, Logan, & Johnstone, in preparation).…”