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Exploration of the Relationship Between Criminal Cognitions and Psychopathy in a Civil Psychiatric Sample

NCJ Number
233363
Journal
International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology Volume: 54 Issue: 6 Dated: December 2010 Pages: 865-877
Author(s)
Melissa Magyar; W. Amory Carr; Barry Rosenfeld; Merrill Rotter
Date Published
December 2010
Length
13 pages
Annotation
This article examines the relationship between criminal cognition and psychopathy.
Abstract
The relationship between psychopathy and thinking styles that support and maintain a criminal lifestyle is examined using the Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version (PCL:SV; Hart, Cox, & Hare, 1995) and the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS; Walters, 1995). These measures are administered to a sample of 75 patients recruited from a State psychiatric hospital in the northeastern United States. Correlational analyses indicate that the PICTS General Criminal Thinking, Self-Assertion/Deception factor scale, and several criminal thinking style scales are significantly related to psychopathy. The significantly associated criminal thinking scales include Entitlement (r = .44) and Superoptimism (r = .43) with Factors 1 and 2 of the PCL:SV, respectively. Multiple regression analyses reveal that these two criminal thinking scales are the strongest predictors of Factors 1 and 2 of the PCL:SV, respectively. Implications for the cognitive basis of the construct of psychopathy, as well as potential treatment interventions, are discussed. (Published Abstract)