Psychopathy and the DSM–IV criteria for the antisocial personality disorder

personality disorder (APD) criteria are too long and cumbersome and that they focus on antisocial behaviors rather than personality traits central to traditional conceptions of psychopathy and to international criteria. We describe an alternative to the approach taken in the rev. 3rd ed. of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual afMental Disorders(DSM-IH- R', American Psychiatric Associa-tion, 1987), namely, the revised Psychopathy Checklist. We also discuss the multisite APD field trials designed to evaluate and compare four criteria sets: the DSM-JJI-R criteria, a shortened list of these criteria, the criteria for dyssocial personality disorder from the 1 Oth ed. of the International Classification of Diseases (World Health Organization, 1990), and a 10-item criteria set for psycho-pathic personality disorder derived from the revised Psychopathy Checklist. The Axis II Work Groupof the American Psychiatric Associ-ation's Task Force on DSM-IV (the fourth edition of the Diag-nostic and'StatisticalManual'of"Menial Disorders) has identified antisocial personality disorder (APD) as "the personality dis-order most likely to undergo major changes in DSM-IV (American Psychiatric Association, 1990, p. 5). The goals of th