The Heterogeneity of Incarcerated Psychopaths: Differences in Risk, Need, Recidivism, and Management Approaches

Psychopathy is a serious personality disorder marked by a constellation of affective, interpersonal, and behavioral characteristics (Hare, 1993/1998, 1996). Affectively, psychopaths are emotionally shallow, selfish, callous, and lack any remorse. Interpersonally, psychopaths are cunning, deceitful, and manipulative. Behaviorally, psychopaths are irresponsible and impulsive and lack realistic long-term goals. The Psychopathy Checklist–Revised (PCL–R; Hare, 1991, 2003) is the most widely used instrument to assess this personality disorder.