Psychopathy in a Civil Psychiatric Outpatient Sample

Abstract

In this primarily descriptive study, the authors describe a sample of patients referred or brought to a Brazilian civil psychiatric facility for evaluation and consultation because of a chronic pattern of social and behavioral problems. Their Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version (PCL: SV) scores generally were very high, and half of the patients met the DSM-IV criteria for antisocial personality disorder. In addition, about half of the patients reportedly had been charged or convicted of a serious criminal offense. The correlates of the PCL: SV were consistent with the research literature on psychopathy in criminal and forensic psychiatric populations. The results add to the small but growing literature on psychopathy in the community and are consistent with the view that antisocial dispositions and behaviors are part of the psychopathy construct.