Importance Of Pcl R

An insight into the PCL-R
Psychopathy is a commonly researched yet misunderstood topic/condition that has become increasingly apparent in the court system in the past century. There isn’t much to help one identify this condition in a person, but one tool that has withstood the test of time is the psychopathy checklist-revised (PCL-R). The PCL-R is a list of characteristics used to recognize psychopathy in an individual as well as give an insight into their specific condition. In a court setting the PCL-R is very useful to understand a little more surrounding both the crime itself and the criminal. To fully comprehend the PCL-R and its usefulness one must comprehend the process of the test itself, the people it’s used to detect, the research it signifies and the people …show more content…
Besides a higher psychopathy rating, it has been noted that there is a correlation between high scores on the PCL-R and recidivism in criminals. “Predicting Behavior”, an article from the Nature Neuroscience journal, states that “high scorers on the PCL-R are three to four times more likely than non-psychopaths to commit violent offenses after being released from prison”. With this understanding of what the scoring means in accordance to psychopathy one could easily think that there is a correlation between low and high scores and low and high risk for violent offenses when there isn’t one. With a high score comes a combination of characteristics that associate with violence, as proven by correlation like the one above, but a low score simply displays that the characteristics aren’t as established. Thus Robert D. Hare can make the conclusion that “a high score may imply a high risk, but a low score does not necessarily imply low risk” in his paper Psychopathy as a Risk Factor for