Screening for Psychopathy Among Incarcerated Women: Psychometric Properties and Construct Validity of the Hare P-SCAN

Abstract

In this study, we explored the psychometric properties and construct validity of the Hare P-SCAN, as scored by correctional officers for 115 women incarcerated in a maximum-security prison. Using correctional officers' ratings, we present psychometric properties of the P-SCAN and the interrater agreement obtained by paired correctional officers coding the same female inmate. We explored construct validity by examining the correspondence of P-SCAN scores with the Psychopathy Checklist –Revised (PCL-R), the Structured Clinical Interview of Personality Disorders (SCID-II), the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI), prior criminal history, and institutional infractions. The P-SCAN demonstrated high internal consistency but moderate interrater reliability, a finding related at least in part to the limited training provided to the correctional officers in using the instrument. The P-SCAN did not correspond with psychopathy or psychopathy factor scores as measured by the PCL-R but did relate to other features, namely Cluster A psychopathology and security level. These two aspects of behavior may be of interest to prison officials but relate only indirectly to the psychopathy construct as defined by the Hare PCL-R.