Using psychopathy to identify differences between variants of juveniles who have committed sexual offenses

Abstract

According to the literature, offenders with psychopathic traits can be distinguished from other offenders based on behavioural patterns or deficits in the processing of emotional stimuli. One of the aims of this study was to explore the link between psychopathic traits and different subtypes of juveniles who have committed sexual offenses, which very few studies have attempted to do. Participants were 270 juvenile offenders convicted for sexual offenses (n = 141) and non-sexual offenses (n = 129) who were tested with the Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version (PCL: YV). The results indicate that juveniles who have committed general offenses (JGO) tend to have a higher prevalence of psychopathic traits when compared to juveniles who have committed sexual offenses (JCSO). Regarding the differentiation between child sex offenders and peer/adult sex offenders, no significant differences were found. Potential implications concerning psychopathic traits assessment in clinical and forensic contexts are discussed.