EBMH NOTEBOOK
Uses and abuses of the Hare Psychopathy Checklist
Correspondence to:
David Crighton, Deputy Chief Psychologist, Office of the Chief Psychologist, Fry NE2, Ministry of Justice, 2 Marsham Street, London SW1P 4DF, UK; David.Crighton@justice.gsi.gov.uk
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
Notions of psychopathic personality and personality disorder have a lengthy history within criminal justice and mental health settings. Issues of how to assess and intervene with this group of individuals also continue to present significant challenges for both services. Those categorised as psychopathic or personality disordered may behave in ways that are seriously damaging both to themselves and to others. There has also been frequent criticism and, at times, castigation of services for failing to engage with these groups and protect the public effectively.1
Such pressures have provided impetus to the search for reliable and valid assessments of psychopathy with prognostic value. The Psychopathy Checklists (PCL) is a family of structured assessments developed in the USA by Robert Hare2 3 (see box 1). They are based loosely on the criteria for psychopathy set out by Cleckley,4 although it should be noted that significant differences exist. The most commonly used version in
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