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ERIC Number: EJ991584
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2012-Jun
Pages: 6
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1040-3590
EISSN: N/A
Field Validity of the Psychopathy Checklist--Revised in Sex Offender Risk Assessment
Murrie, Daniel C.; Boccaccini, Marcus T.; Caperton, Jennifer; Rufino, Katrina
Psychological Assessment, v24 n2 p524-529 Jun 2012
Several studies have concluded that scores from Hare's (2003) Psychopathy Checklist--Revised (PCL-R) predict reoffense among sexual offenders, but most of those studies examined the predictive validity of scores from trained research staff, not clinicians in the field scoring the measure as part of actual forensic assessments. Therefore, we examined the field validity of PCL-R scores that forensic evaluators assigned to 333 male sexual offenders who underwent evaluations during a civil commitment selection process. Overall, no PCL-R score was a significant predictor of sexually violent recidivism. Facet 4 was the only PCL-R score with an area under the curve (AUC) greater than 0.50 (AUC = 0.53, p = 0.85) and the only PCL-R score that approached statistical significance for predicting the combined category of violent "or" sexually violent offending (AUC = 0.63, p = 0.08). However, scores from a subset of evaluators revealed stronger predictive effects, indicating that predictive validity was higher for scores from some evaluators than others. Overall, these results suggest that the stronger predictive validity values in controlled research studies may not apply to all evaluators when the PCL-R is administered in the field. (Contains 2 tables and 2 footnotes.)
American Psychological Association. Journals Department, 750 First Street NE, Washington, DC 20002-4242. Tel: 800-374-2721; Tel: 202-336-5510; Fax: 202-336-5502; e-mail: order@apa.org; Web site: http://www.apa.org/publications
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Texas
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A