Psychopathy and risk assessment

Psychopathy and risk assessment R. Hare originally developed the concept of psychopathy to assess a certain type of personality, which he frequently found in prisons and which posed a special challenge in programs offered there. Over time it was recognized that this personality is characterized by several aspects that can be shown by means of factor analysis. Cooke demonstrated that psychopathy consists of three factors (1) arrogant and manipulative interpersonal style, (2) defective emotional style and (3) impulsive and irresponsible behaviour. Hare argued for a two factor four facets model in which he added "rule braking behaviour" to the above mentioned three factors. Independent of the function of the PCL-R as a measure for psychopathy it is recognized as the most applied and best examined instrument for risk assessments worldwide. The outstanding significance of the PCL-R for risk assessments (particularly for violent relapses) has been proven in the Munich Prediction Project (MPP) with 264 individuals. However, the number of "false positives " with at least 60% is still relatively high. Furthermore, these numbers warn not to overestimate the prognostic competence of professionals even if they include instruments for risk assessment into their practice