Psychopathy, criminal history, and recidivism

This dissertation has three main parts. In the first part, the construct of psychopathy is described, its theoretical relevance for predicting recidivism is examined, and the literature on The Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R; Hare, 1980, 1991) and recidivism is briefly reviewed. The association between psychopathy and recidivism (general, violent) was examined in five samples (N > 800 inmates) of provincial and federal male inmates who were incarcerated in British Columbia between 1964 and 1995. Results were consistent across samples and across measures and indicated that psychopathy was positively associated with recidivism. These findings indicate that psychopathy is important for identifying inmates who are at risk to be reconvicted. In the second part of the dissertation, a comprehensive and empirically-based set of crime categories was developed. Crimes were sorted into 200 descriptive categories and then collapsed into broader categories using frequency counts and factor analysis. Results indicated that the four most frequently occurring crime categories (break and enter, fraud, theft, possession of illegal property) accounted for more than half of all convictions, whereas the remaining 25 crime categories accountedfor less than half of all convictions. In the third part of the dissertation, PCL-R scores, frequency counts for the crime categories, and basic demographic variables, were entered into a stepwise discriminant function analysis to predict general recidivism (yes, no) and into another discriminant function analysis to predict violent recidivism. The percentage of general recidivists who were correctly classified (81.3%) was similar in magnitude to the base rate of general recidivism (81.1%). In terms of violent recidivism, five variables (PCL-R scores, two age variables, previous convictions for robbery and for assault) emerged as important predictors. Scores on each of these five predictors were assigned weights, and the weights were summed together to form a violence risk score. Higher scores on the violence risk scale identified inmates who were at higher risk to be convicted of violent recidivism. Scores on the risk instrument correctly classified 62.2% of inmates into violent (yes, no) recidivism groups. These results held-up under cross-validation; in an independent sample of 124 inmates, 64.5% of inmates were correctly classified. The findings indicate that the violence risk scale has promise as a measure for identifying inmates who are at risk to be convicted of future violence.Arts, Faculty ofPsychology, Department ofGraduat