ABSTRACT
Psychopathy is a personality disorder associated with a constellation of affective, interpersonal, and behavioral characteristics, central to which are a profound lack of guilt and a callous disregard for the feelings, rights, and welfare of others (Cleckley, 1976; Hare, 1991). Psychopaths are impulsive, deceitful, selfish, sensation-seeking, and irresponsible. Among adults, psychopathy has been linked to serious repetitive crime, violent behavior, and poor treatment prognosis (for reviews, see Hare, 1998a; Hart & Hare, 1997). Although a considerable amount of research has focused on psychopathy in adults, substantially less research has been conducted among children and adolescents. However, interest in the developmental aspects of this disorder has intensified (Forth & Burke, 1998; Frick, 1998; Frick, O'Brien, Wootton, & McBurnett, 1994; Lynam, 1996). Given psychopaths' resistance to treatment as adults (Ogloff, Wong, & Greenwood, 1990; Rice, Harris, & Cormier, 1992), the optimal strategy to attenuate psychopathic behavior may be to identify and inter vene early in development. Early intervention strategies may modify the pathway to persistent, diverse, and serious antisocial behaviors associat ed with psychopathy. It is also important to differentiate psychopathic youth from other aggressive youth because not all aggressive youth will become high-rate offenders.
