TY - JOUR PY - 2014// TI - Psychopathic traits in young offenders vs. non-offenders in similar socioeconomic condition JO - Revista brasileira de psiquiatria A1 - Castellana, Gustavo B. A1 - Barros, Daniel M. de A1 - Serafim, Antonio de P. A1 - Busatto Filho, Geraldo SP - 241 EP - 244 VL - 36 IS - 3 N2 - OBJECTIVE: To analyze the differences in psychopathic traits between offender and non-offender youths with similar socioeconomic backgrounds.

METHOD: The Psychopathy Checklist Revised (PCL-R) scale was used to identify whether 39 young offenders with no history of mental disorders or criteria for psychopathy exhibited differences in its total score, and specifically for factor 1 or factor 2 of this scale, when compared with 32 other young people, living in similar socioeconomic conditions, who had not committed offenses.

RESULTS: We observed statistically significant between-group differences (p < 0.01) in mean PCL-R scores, with a mean score of 13.4 in the offender group vs. 2.1 in the non-offender group. We also detected significant between-group differences when we analyzed mean factor 1 (p < 0.01) and factor 2 (p < 0.01) scores separately. Although the groups exhibited statistically significant difference in educational attainment, between-group comparison of mean PCL-R scores controlling for educational attainment by analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) showed that the difference in PCL-R scores remained statistically significant (p < 0.01).

CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that, in this sample, the presence of both primary (interpersonal/affective characteristics) and secondary (lifestyle/antisocial behavior) psychopathic traits differed between offender and non-offender youths, even when excluding psychopathy and other mental disorders from the assessments. These results suggest a need for wide-ranging interventions, not restricted to socioeconomic aspects, for the management of juvenile delinquency.

Language: en

LA - en SN - 1516-4446 UR - http://dx.doi.org/ ID - ref1 ER -