Psychopathy in female inmates in Chile

Abstract

Introduction: although psychopathy is a clinical construct of great importance for both the clinical and forensic field, previous Latin American research has been focused mainly on males. Objectives: determine the prevalence of psychopathy and of antisocial personality disorder in imprisoned female population. To explore the distribution scores obtained with the PCL-R and to test its psychometric characteristics. Method: a randomized sample of 210 participants was obtained from the 570 women imprisoned in the female prison in Santiago, Chile, in June 2014. The participants were evaluated by two independent researchers with the Hare Psychopathy Checklist and the Interpersonal Measure of Psychopathy. The information was obtained from different sources and the interviews were all video- registered for its double check. Results: Prevalence of psychopathy was 11,9% and antisocial personality disorder 43,8%. The results assert that the Psychopathy Checklist - Revised is reliable and valid  to be used in women and provide the norms for the professionals working with inmate female population.