Psychopathy is considered one
of the best predictors of violence and prison misconducts and is arguably an
important clinical construct in the correctional setting. However, we tested
whether psychopathy can be used to predict misconducts in prison environments
for women as has been done for men. To date, few studies exist that examine and
validate this association in female offender samples. The present study
included 182 ethnically diverse female offenders.
The aim was to prospectively
predict violent and nonviolent misconducts over a 9-month period using official
records of prior violent criminal history (e.g., homicide, manslaughter,
assault), and self-report measures of psychopathy, impulsivity, and empathy.
Using negative binomial regression, we found that past violent criminal
history, and callous and antisocial psychopathic traits were predictors of
violent misconducts, whereas antisocial psychopathic traits and impulsivity
best predicted nonviolent misconducts. Although empathy was negatively associated
with psychopathy it was not a significant predictor of violent or nonviolent
misconducts. Statistical models, which included impulsivity, were considered
the most parsimonious at predicting misconducts.
Our findings demonstrate how
risk-factors found to be reliable in male offender samples, such as
psychopathic traits, impulsivity, and past violent criminal history, generalize
to female offenders for predicting nonviolent and violent misconducts. One
notable difference is the importance of callous psychopathic traits when
predicting chronic violent misconducts by female offenders. In sum, there are
more similarities in psychopathy and impulsivity than differences in the
prediction of misconducts among men and women.
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