The Concurrent Validity of the Psychopathic Personality Inventory and its Relative Association with Past Violence in a Sample of Insanity Acquittees

Abstract

The Psychopathic Personality Inventory (PPI; Lilienfeld & Andrews, 1996) is a reliable and valid selfreport measure of psychopathy that may be useful in conducting violence risk assessments with insanity acquittees. We examined the relations among the PPI, the Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version (PCL:SV; Hart, Cox, & Hare, 1995), and measures of violence (officially recorded and self-reported). PPI Total and several Subscale Scores were significantly correlated with PCL:SV Total, Factor 1, and Factor 2 Scores, demonstrating concurrent validity of the PPI with insanity acquittees. PPI Total Scores predicted past violence about as well as PCL:SV Factor 2 Scores and the PPI and PCL:SV performed similarly in hierarchical multiple regression analyses predicting past violence. Implications for the relation between the PPI and PCL and implications for violence risk assessments with insanity acquittees are discussed.