ABSTRACT

Although it is well established that individuals with psychopathic traits commit more crimes than individuals without psychopathic traits, the association between psychopathy and success in the criminal justice system (CJS) is less understood. We addressed this issue by examining relationships between psychopathic traits and the conviction-to-charge ratio (CCR) in 355 incarcerated adult male offenders who were also assessed on the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised. This study was unique in examining a comprehensive dataset of state and federal criminal records. No relationships between CCR and psychopathy ratings were found in the present study. However, scores on a modified CCR that included sets of charges without dispositions yielded both unique and zero-order relationships between interpersonal features and conviction rates. These results suggest that the interpersonal traits may be uniquely associated with some indices of decreased success in the CJS. Future research should examine what is driving this unique relationship.

摘要

尽管众所周知，具有精神病特征的人比没有精神病特征的人犯下更多的罪行，但人们对精神病与刑事司法系统 (CJS) 中的成功之间的关联知之甚少。我们通过检查精神病态特征与 355 名被监禁的成年男性罪犯的定罪与控罪率 (CCR) 之间的关系来解决这个问题，这些男性罪犯也接受了精神病检查表修订版的评估。这项研究在检查州和联邦犯罪记录的综合数据集方面是独一无二的。在本研究中没有发现 CCR 和精神病评分之间的关​​系。然而，在修改后的 CCR 上的得分，包括没有处置的指控集，在人际关系特征和定罪率之间产生了独特的零阶关系。这些结果表明，人际交往特征可能与 CJS 成功率下降的一些指标唯一相关。未来的研究应该检查是什么推动了这种独特的关系。