Personality and psychopathy of males with a history of early criminal behaviour

Abstract

Data from three personality inventories—the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) including an Impulsivity scale from the IVE inventory, a short version of two Chapman scales, and the Karolinska Scales of Personality (KSP)—were studied for a group of 199 male subjects (age range 32–40 years) subdivided ( 1 ) according to the level of Psychopathy Check List (PCL) scores at adult age and (2) according to criminal activity during the age period of 11–14 years. Intelligence scores from the age of 11–14 and ratings of mental health, both from age 11–14 and from adult life, were examined in relation to the PCL and early criminal groupings, respectively. Furthermore, a dimensional description of the PCL was performed on the total sample. Subjects with high PCL scores formed a risk group for developing ‘disinhibitory psychopathology’. They manifested a personality pattern of markedly high impulsivity, monotony avoidance, and psychoticism, and low socialization in combination with high proneness to somatic anxiety. A significant quadratic trend was found for PCL group on the IVE Impulsiveness scale. The early ‘high criminal’ and early ‘low criminal’ groups had significantly lower socialization scores and higher PCL impulsivity item scores than the control group indicating ‘vulnerability’ for developing psychosocial disorders. Furthermore, the early ‘high criminal’ group displayed higher scores on the three PCL factors obtained, denoted ‘Sensation seeking and impulsivity’, ‘Callousness/lack of deep emotions’, and ‘Narcissistic appearance/manipulative’. The results are discussed in terms of usefulness of a classification according to PCL scores, as compared with early criminal activity, when focusing on risk subjects for disinhibitory tendencies.