Robert D. Hare, Ph.D.

In this article the reliability and usefulness of Hare's Psychopathy Checklist Revised (PCL-R) and the conclusions on basis of the scores are examined. It was concluded that, a) this checklist is a not a reliable tool, b) the conclusions that are linked to these PCL-R scores with regard to the treat. The Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised, with demonstrated reliability and validity, is rapidly being adopted worldwide as the standard instrument for researchers and clinicians. The PCL-R and PCL:SV are strong predictors of recidivism, violence and response to therapeutic intervention.

Age Range: 18 years and older
Administration Time Structured interview: 90 – 120 minutes
Collateral review: 60 minutes
PCL–R assessment: 15 – 20 minutes
Administration Type: Structured Interview, Clinician-completed
Qualification Level C

Assesses psychopathic (antisocial) personality disorders. The 2nd Edition of the PCL-RTM supplants its predecessor as the mandatory tool for assessing psychopathy. With it, you will find
forensic assessments of psychopathy to be systematic and based on ironclad data and research. The revisions draw upon the large numbers of articles, reports, presentations, and dissertations that have appeared since the original publication in 1991.

The tool assesses psychopathic personality disorders in forensic populations. It provides complete coverage of the domain of psychopathic traits and behaviours. As in the original version, the PCL-R: 2nd Edition provides a Total score that is the most important score for the overall assessment of psychopathy. The Total score can be interpreted dimensionally in terms of degree of match to the prototypical psychopath, or it can be used categorically to help identify/diagnose psychopaths.

The PCL-R 2nd Edition is highly reliable and has impressive concurrent, predictive, and construct validity. Ratings are made using a semi-structured interview and a review of collateral information. Scoring is based on the degree to which a person’s personality/behaviour matches the Rating Booklet items. The manual provides item descriptions, scoring procedures, extensive reliability and validity information, and normative data. New large-sample descriptive and
validation data are provided for use of the PCL-R 2nd Edition with male and female offenders, substance abusers, sex offenders, African-American offenders, and forensic psychiatric clients. Expanded for use with offenders in several countries, the PCL-R has become the international standard for the assessment of psychopathy.

Items are rated using the PCL-R Rating Booklet, and the QuikScoreTMForm obtains scores and profile results. Ratings are based on responses to the semi-structured interview and a review of collateral information. Percentile and T-score tables are provided for male and female offenders, for male forensic psychiatric patients who have been assessed with the standard PCL-R procedure (interview plus file information), and for male offenders and forensic psychiatric patients whose assessments are based solely on file reviews. New research findings derived from confirmatory factor analysis and item response theory are presented along with the implications of these findings for research, clinical, and forensic purposes.

Profile Reports provide classification information based on the overall assessment score.

This post and accompanying video discuss psychopathy, what it is, and how it relates to the case of convicted serial killer Aileen Wuornos. I also go through the psychopathy test PCL-R (Psychopathy Checklist Revised), which is a checklist developed by psychologist Robert Hare.

What is Psychopathy?

The term “psychopath” is fairly widespread and used often in the popular media. Think, for example of the movie “American Psycho”, where Christian Bale plays an investment banker who seems to be very successful and who has a life that appears to be very hip and trendy, but who secretly has a second life full of assault and cold-blooded murder.

Psychopathy is a personality disorder and has several characteristics, personality traits, or criteria:

• First: A lack of empathy for other people, meaning having little regard for the feelings and emotions of others, and not having close bonds with other people
• Second: Low guilt and remorse
• Third: Fearlessness and they’re not responsive to punishment

Psychopathy is associated with the most severe and chronicantisocial behavior.

The causes for psychopathy have been studied, and what’s been found is that genes and dysfunction in certain brain regions seem to have a considerable influence on psychopathy. But there are also social factors, such as having had parents who used harsh parenting techniques, that play a role.

The Hare Psychopathy Test and Checklist

Canadian psychologist Robert Hare has developed a Psychopathy Checklist, which is called the PCL-R: Psychopathy Checklist Revised. You can see a copy of that list below.

The Psychopathy Checklist contains 20 items. For each item,one assesses whether that characteristic is not present, somewhat present, ordefinitely present in an individual. For not present, one would enter a scoreof 0, for somewhat present one would enter a score of 1 and for definitelypresent a score of 2. So for example, the first item is glibness, superficialcharm. If this is definitely present in a person, the score would be 2. If it’snot present, a 0 and somewhat present, a 1.

The same thing can be done with the second characteristic,egocentricity: One enters the score, and then continues with the entire list ofcharacteristics, such as proneness to boredom here, pathological lying anddeception, lack of sincerity, lack of remorse or guilt, etc.

When one has completed all items, one then sums up the responses across all 20 items. So in that way the maximum score across all items would be 40 (because the maximum score per item is 2, and then times 20 items, this makes 40).

People who score more than 25 to 30 points (25 in the UK and 30 in the US) are said to display psychopathy.

The Case of Aileen Wuornos, convicted female serial killer

One of the well-known real-life examples of someone for whom the PCL-R was completed is Aileen Wuornos. She was a serial killer, who was the main character in the movie “Monster”, where she was played by Charlize Theron.

Her story has been analyzed by scientists, so let’s talk a little bit about what they found out, so that her pathway into becoming a serial killer becomes clearer.

She was born in Michigan, and her background was one of significant deprivation. Her parents were two teenagers who got divorced around the time she was born. Her father was absent; he was an alcoholic who was sentenced for raping a young girl, and he committed suicide in prison. Her mother was also an alcoholic and she left her baby, Aileen Wuornos, with her grandparents, who were also alcoholic and emotionally and physically abusive.

Already when she was a child, she started to show behavioralproblems, such as fighting, stealing, and setting fires. She also had a low IQ.She became pregnant at age 13 and was forced to give up her son for adoption.Then, when she became an adolescent, she started drinking, running away, usingdrugs, panhandling and prostituting herself.

As a prostitute, she was sexually and physically abused byher clients, and was arrested for a range of crimes during that time. She alsotried to commit suicide multiple times and had many short-term relationships

At age 34, Wuornos killed seven men over a 1-year period. Her victims were all middle-aged men, and they were all killed with a firearm. Afterwards, Wuornos said that she killed them because she wanted to rob them and that she wanted to eliminate them as potential witnesses. She was executed by lethal injection in 2002.

Aileen Wuornos’s Score on the Psychopathy Test

Robert Hare Psychopathy Test Online

Three experts scored Wuornos on the PCL-R checklist that youjust saw, and they reached the conclusion that she scored 32 out of 40 points.

She also met the criteria for antisocial personality disorder, which is characterized by a lack of regard for moral values and for the feelings of other people. Also, she was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, which is a mental disorder where people have extreme variations in mood, emotions and behavior.

Regarding the factors that may have contributed to the causes of the diagnosis of psychopathy and mental disorders in the case of Wuornos, the psychiatrists who studied her case think that these diagnoses were likely caused by her traumatic childhood and the physical and sexual abuse that she experienced, which can disrupt normal human development. Also, they concluded that there may have been a genetic influence towards violence that she inherited from her father and that that genes have contributed to her choices to murder others.

In sum, this case study shows how psychopathy can be related to committing serious violence crimes, in this case murder.

Robert Hare Psychopathy Checklist

Resources:

Frick, P. J. (2009). Extending the construct of psychopathy to youth: Implications for understanding, diagnosing, and treating antisocial children and adolescents. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry/Revue Canadienne de Psychiatrie, 31(12), 803.

Hare, R. D. (2003). The Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised, 2nd edition. Toronto, ON: Multi-Health Systems. You can download a copy here.

What Is Hare Psychopathy Checklist

Myers, W. C., Gooch, E., & Meloy, J. R. (2005). The role of psychopathy and sexuality in a female serial killer. Journal of Forensic Science, 50(3), 1-6.