Statement of concerned experts on the use of the Hare Psychopathy Checklist—Revised in capital sentencing to assess risk for institutional violence.

Abstract

Psychopathy as measured by the Hare Psychopathy Checklist—Revised (PCL–R; Hare, 1991, 2003) is related to a range of rule-breaking and antisocial behaviors. Given this association, psychopathy has received considerable attention from researchers and legal professionals over the past several decades. Concerns remain, however, about using PCL–R scores to make precise and accurate predictions in certain contexts, including an individual’s risk for committing serious violence in high-security custodial facilities. After a brief introduction to psychopathy and the PCL–R, we discuss capital sentencing in the United States and then summarize the empirical literature regarding the ability of PCL–R scores to predict violence, with a particular focus on the PCL–R’s ability to predict serious institutional violence. As described, we believe the research demonstrates that the PCL–R cannot precisely or accurately predict an individual’s risk for committing serious violence in high-security custodial facilities. Finally, we present a Statement of Concerned Experts that summarizes our findings and opinions, concluding the PCL–R cannot and should not be used to make predictions that an individual will engage in serious institutional violence with any reasonable degree of precision or accuracy, especially when making high-stakes decisions about legal issues such as capital sentencing. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)