Citation

Silva T, Garrido GV, López Latorre MJ. Span. J. Psychol. 2012; 15(2): 724-735.

Affiliation

Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Spain.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2012, Complutense University of Madrid, Publisher Cambridge University Press)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

22774446

Abstract

The aim of this research was to determine to what extent a psychopath screening device (the APSD) is useful in forensic assessments to predict general and violent offending. For this purpose, a cross-sectional study was done and 238 young people serving a sentence were assessed. The gold standard instrument used to measure psychopathy was the Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version (PCL:YV; Forth, Kosson & Hare, 2003). The results indicate that the association found between the screening device scores and several indicators of risk is low if compared with those obtained with the PCL:YV, suggesting that it is less useful as a tool in order to predict offending or violent offences. However, an Area Under the Curve of .784 and a validity index of 62.5 support its use as a screening device or as a preliminary approach to assess psychopathy in this population. The usefulness of this instrument to make assessments with young people in the forensic setting is discussed.

Language: en