Several investigators have assessed the Psychopathy Checklist–Revised (PCL-R) for invariance across offender ethnicities and in correctional and forensic–psychiatric contexts. Yet we do not know whether, or to what extent, item properties among male offenders vary throughout adulthood. With a combined sample of PCL-R data on offenders from Canada and the United States (N = 4,820), we measured item properties for offenders in age groups of Early (18-30 years old), Middle (31-49 years old), and Late (50+ years old) adulthood. Nine items showed differential item functioning across age group comparisons. Among the Early group, the PCL-R Interpersonal and Affective traits were most informative for measuring the latent trait of psychopathy. Among the Late group, the PCL-R Lifestyle and Antisocial items were most informative for the latent trait. These differences in item information illustrate how psychopathy manifests in male offenders throughout adulthood.

一些研究人员评估了精神病检查表修订版 (PCL-R) 在罪犯种族以及惩教和法医-精神病学背景下的不变性。然而，我们不知道男性罪犯的物品属性在整个成年期是否或在多大程度上有所不同。结合加拿大和美国罪犯的 PCL-R 数据样本（N= 4,820)，我们测量了成年早期（18-30 岁）、中期（31-49 岁）和晚期（50 岁以上）的犯罪者的项目属性。九个项目显示跨年龄组比较的不同项目功能。在早期组中，PCL-R 人际和情感特征对于测量精神病的潜在特征最为有用。在晚期组中，PCL-R 生活方式和反社会项目对潜在特征的信息量最大。项目信息的这些差异说明了精神病在整个成年期如何在男性罪犯中表现出来。