Psychopathy and the dimensions of personality disorder in violent offenders

The relationship of factors of personality disorder to psychopathy was investigated to determine whether psychopathy is more appropriately construed as a dimension of personality disorder rather than as one of several discrete categories of personality disorder. Comparisons were also made of the associations of personality disorders and psychopathy with measures of established personality dimensions, criminality and lifetime psychopathology. Male violent offenders detained in English prisons and a maximum security psychiatric hospital (N=167) were assessed with the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III Axis II disorders (SCID-II) and the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R). Factor analysis of personality disorder measures yielded four factors identified as impulsivity, detachment, sensitivity and compulsivity. The first three factors were related to measures of the personality dimensions of agreeableness, extraversion and neuroticism, respectively. The PCL-R correlated highly with the impulsivity factor. Both had significant associations with violent and nonviolent criminality, but relationships to psychopathology were limited to substance abuse history. The results replicate previous findings on the dimensional structure of personality disorders and support a dimensional conception of psychopathy.