Callous-unemotional (CU)
traits, that is, a lack of guilt or empathy and poverty of emotion, are
believed to be the developmental precursor to psychopathy in adulthood,
capturing its emotional detachment dimension.
Similar to psychopathic adults,
research shows that children and adolescents with high CU traits represent an
important population at heightened risk for criminal behavior. The present study is
the first to examine whether a self-report measure of CU traits, the Inventory
of Callous-Unemotional Traits (ICU), predicts general and violent recidivism
postinstitutional release among a sample of 227 juvenile justice-involved
adolescent boys (M age = 15.73, SD = 1.27).
Results indicated that boys high on
CU traits were faster to reoffend postrelease both nonviolently (Hazard Ratio
[HR] = 1.27, p < .01) and violently (HR = 1.54, p < .05). Further, the
Uncaring subscale of the ICU predicted faster time to general recidivism (HR =
1.21, p < .05), whereas the Callousness subscale (i.e., "I do not care
who I hurt to get what I want") predicted faster time to violent
recidivism (HR = 1.39, p < .05). The present study provides
preliminary support for the predictive validity of a brief, yet comprehensive
self-report measure of CU traits.
Findings inform youth risk assessment by
offering possibilities within the domain of self-report for screening high-risk
youth in need of intensive, comprehensive, and individualized intervention
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By:
Psychol Assess. 2016 Feb 4.
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