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Profiles of Psychopathy in Incarcerated Sexual Offenders

NCJ Number
181974
Journal
Criminal Justice and Behavior Volume: 27 Issue: 2 Dated: April 2000 Pages: 216-233
Author(s)
Stephen Porter; David Fairweather; Jeff Drugge; Hugues Herve; Angela Birt; Douglas P. Boer
Date Published
2000
Length
18 pages
Annotation
The authors investigated whether psychopathy would contribute to the understanding of the heterogeneity of sexual violence.
Abstract
Using the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised, the presence of psychopathy, callous personality (Factor 1), and chronic antisocial conduct (Factor 2) were measured in a diverse sample (n=329) of incarcerated sex offenders and nonsexual offenders categorized according to the nature of their crimes. The findings show that mixed rapist/molesters and rapists were more psychopathic than child molesters, although all sex-offender groups showed elevated Factor 1 scores. A high proportion (64 percent) of offenders who had victimized both children and adults were psychopathic, indicative of a criminal whose thrill-seeking is directed at diverse sexual victims (appropriately called a sexual psychopath). Furthermore, there were different factor scores and an interaction between factor scores and offense type. An interesting finding came from the examination of factor correlations. For the nonsexual offenders, there was a significant positive correlation between the two factors (similar to previous research). Other than rapists, the sex offender groups (individually) did not show significant factor correlations. This pattern suggests that callousness in many molesters is manifested mainly in sexual offending, dissimilar to the more generalized pattern of rapists and nonsexual offenders. This is in accord with clinical observations that many molesters maintain an otherwise "normal" existence while preying on children. These profiles have implications for treatment and a comprehensive theory of sexual violence. 1 figure, 1 table, and 31 references