Past research has shown significant evidence that a relatively small subset of violent juveniles commits the majority of violent crimes and continues their violent behavior into adulthood. The ability of the juvenile justice system to identify the subpopulation of chronically violent juvenile offenders early in their criminal careers would facilitate appropriate management and intervention approaches. Studying a sample of incarcerated youth where there was a high rate of violence and focusing on the associations with their history of community violence prior to incarceration, this study examined the association of psychopathy and over-controlled hostility with measures of violence controlling for historical indices of violence risk. Participants in the study consisted of 100, predominantly African-American male inmates who were juveniles at the times of their convictions in criminal court and who were incarcerated by the State department of corrections. The results of the study suggest that the construct of psychopathy is associated with violent behavior in juvenile offenders. In addition, they suggest that the association between psychopathic traits and violence could not be solely explained by historical risk factors in the offender’s history and that psychopathic traits may be useful for assessing both the risk for violence severity and frequency and for assessing risk for specific patterns of violence. Tables, references