Drugs and Behavior
Outline
Introduction
I. The term psychopathy is being looked at more to characterize juveniles who lack remorse, empathy, and a sense of morality.
a. Research on juvenile psychopathy is rapidly growing.
b. Attempts to apply the label psychopathy to juveniles raise several conceptual, methodological, and practical concerns related to forensic practice and juvenile justice policy.
c. Many debate whether psychopathy can or should be applied to juveniles at all.
Body
I. Even if psychopathy can be identified in adolescents the label may have too many negative effects.
a. The label implies that the prognosis for treatment is poor, a high rate of offending and recidivism can be expected, and the intrinsic and biological basis of the disorder means little can be done outside of biological interventions.
b. Another issue that arises contends that psychopathy assessments of youths must achieve a high level of confidence before they can be employed in the juvenile justice system.
c. There is concern that a diagnosis of psychopathy may be used to justify decisions to transfer juveniles to the adult criminal justice system, simply based on the assumption that psychopathy is untreatable.
II. There are several interments that are used to measure pre-adult psychopathy that have been developed in recent years:
a. The Psychopathic Screening Device (PSD)
b. The Childhood Psychopathy Scale (CPS)
c. PCL:YV
III. Identifying juvenile psychopaths
a. In 1964 McCord and McCord contended that juvenile psychopaths are excitement seeking, impulsive, aggressive, and callous.
b. Findings indicate that psychopathic youth are substantially more likely to present psychiatric disorders such as attention deficit/hyperactive disorders, conduct disorder, substance abuse/dependence, and other personality disorders than are non-psychopathic youth offenders.
c. Psychopathic youth exhibit a moderately greater propensity to violence and institutional violence or misbehavior, and
Introduction
I. The term psychopathy is being looked at more to characterize juveniles who lack remorse, empathy, and a sense of morality.
a. Research on juvenile psychopathy is rapidly growing.
b. Attempts to apply the label psychopathy to juveniles raise several conceptual, methodological, and practical concerns related to forensic practice and juvenile justice policy.
c. Many debate whether psychopathy can or should be applied to juveniles at all.
Body
I. Even if psychopathy can be identified in adolescents the label may have too many negative effects.
a. The label implies that the prognosis for treatment is poor, a high rate of offending and recidivism can be expected, and the intrinsic and biological basis of the disorder means little can be done outside of biological interventions.
b. Another issue that arises contends that psychopathy assessments of youths must achieve a high level of confidence before they can be employed in the juvenile justice system.
c. There is concern that a diagnosis of psychopathy may be used to justify decisions to transfer juveniles to the adult criminal justice system, simply based on the assumption that psychopathy is untreatable.
II. There are several interments that are used to measure pre-adult psychopathy that have been developed in recent years:
a. The Psychopathic Screening Device (PSD)
b. The Childhood Psychopathy Scale (CPS)
c. PCL:YV
III. Identifying juvenile psychopaths
a. In 1964 McCord and McCord contended that juvenile psychopaths are excitement seeking, impulsive, aggressive, and callous.
b. Findings indicate that psychopathic youth are substantially more likely to present psychiatric disorders such as attention deficit/hyperactive disorders, conduct disorder, substance abuse/dependence, and other personality disorders than are non-psychopathic youth offenders.
c. Psychopathic youth exhibit a moderately greater propensity to violence and institutional violence or misbehavior, and