The PCL‐R Assessment of Psychopathy

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the most widely accepted clinical/forensic measure of psychopathy, the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R). Although traditionally considered to be a personality disorder, some investigators view psychopathy as an evolutionary adaptive life strategy rather than as a disorder. The purpose of the PCL-R was to measure the construct of psychopathy. It describes psychopathy as a constellation of interpersonal, affective, lifestyle, and antisocial traits and behaviors. The chapter briefly describes the direct derivatives of PCL-R, including the PCL: screening version (PCL: SV); PCL: youth version (PCL: YV); and the antisocial process screening device (APSD). Like the APSD, the childhood psychopathy scale is a downward developmental translation of what is arguably the ‘gold standard’ for the assessment of psychopathy in adulthood. Although developed to measure a clinical construct, the PCL-R has become one of the most widely used psychological instruments in forensic psychiatry and practice.

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