Research on the role of risk perception as a mechanism linking personality traits and behavioral outcomes is limited. The current study assessed a developmental model of the influence of psychopathic traits (PPTs) on the between- and within-individual variation in perceptions of risk and aggressive offending. Multivariate latent growth curve models were used to estimate the role of risk perceptions in the association between PPTs and aggressive offending in a sample of 1,354 adjudicated youths. The results indicated that PPTs influenced between-individual differences in perceptions of risk (β = −.312) and aggressive offending (β = .256), although the effects on within-individual differences suggested some attenuation over time. Additionally, higher PPT scores exhibited an indirect influence on increased aggressive offending through reduced perceptions of risk (β = .049). Implications from this line of research support calls for a developmentally informed juvenile justice system that considers latent personality traits and their long-term effects. Broader implications support individualized rehabilitative programming and tailored responses to offending over the blanket deterrence approach that dominates the current landscape of the American criminal justice system.
AltikritiS. (2021). Toward integrated processual theories of crime: Assessing the developmental effects of executive function, self-control, and decision-making on offending. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 48, 215–233.
2.
AltikritiS.NedelecJ. L. (2020). Skewed perceptions: Psychopathy and systematic biases of risk and reward from adolescence to emerging adulthood. Journal of Developmental and Life-Course Criminology, 6, 296–320.
3.
AltikritiS.TheocharidouK.SullivanC. J. (2020). Specific theories of crime? A longitudinal assessment of the competing effects of psychopathy and self-control. Journal of Crime and Justice, 43, 547–567.
4.
AndershedH. A.KerrM.StattinH.LevanderS. (2002). Psychopathic traits in non-referred youths: A new assessment tool. In BlaauwE.SheridanL. (Eds.), Psychopaths: Current international perspectives (pp. 131–158). Elsevier.
5.
AndrewsD. A.BontaJ. (2010). The psychology of criminal conduct. Routledge.
6.
AnwarS.LoughranT. A. (2011). Testing a Bayesian learning theory of deterrence among serious juvenile offenders. Criminology, 49, 667–698.
7.
BakerT.PiqueroA. R. (2010). Assessing the perceived benefits—Criminal offending relationship. Journal of Criminal Justice, 38, 981–987.
8.
Baskin-SommersA. R.BaskinD. (2016). Psychopathic traits mediate the relationship between exposure to violence and violent juvenile offending. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 38, 341–349.
9.
BaumerE. P.LauritsenJ. L. (2010). Reporting crime to the police, 1973-2005: A multivariate analysis of long-term trends in the National Crime Survey (NCS) and National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). Criminology, 48, 131–185.
10.
BeaverK. M.NedelecJ. L.da Silva CostaC.PoerschA. P.StelmachM. C.FreddiM. C.GajosJ. M.Boccio, C. (2014). The association between psychopathic personality traits and health-related outcomes. Journal of Criminal Justice, 42, 399–407.
11.
BéginV.DéryM.Le CorffY. (2019). Continuity and change in psychopathic traits among school-aged children with conduct problems. Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 50, 580–590.
12.
BirbaumerN.VeitR.LotzeM.ErbM.HermannC.GroddW.FlorH. (2005). Deficient fear conditioning in psychopathy: A functional magnetic resonance imaging study. Archives of General Psychiatry, 62, 799–805.
13.
BlaisA.WeberE. U. (2006). A domain-specific risk-taking (DOSPERT) scale for adult populations. Judgement and Decision Making, 1, 33–47.
14.
BrownT. (2006). Confirmatory factor analysis for applied research. Guildford.
15.
ByrdA. L.LoeberR.PardiniD. A. (2014). Antisocial behavior, psychopathic features and abnormalities in reward and punishment processing in youth. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 17, 125–156.
16.
CornishD. B.ClarkeR. V. (2017). The rational choice perspective. In WortleyR.TownsleyM. (Eds.), Environmental criminology and crime analysis (2nd ed., pp. 29–61). Taylor & Francis.
17.
CorradoR. R.McCuishE. C.HartS. D.DeLisiM. (2015). The role of psychopathic traits and developmental risk factors on offending trajectories from early adolescence to adulthood: A prospective study of incarcerated youth. Journal of Criminal Justice, 43, 357–368.
18.
CullenF. T.GendreauP.JarjouraG. R.WrightJ. P. (1997). Crime and the bell curve: Lessons from intelligent criminology. Crime and Delinquency, 43, 387–411.
19.
DaylorJ. M.BlalockD. V.DavisT.KlaubergW. X.StuewigJ.TangneyJ. P. (2019). Who tells the truth? Former inmates’ self-reported arrests vs. official records. Journal of Criminal Justice, 63, 49–57.
20.
DeLisiM. (2009). Psychopathy is the unified theory of crime. Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice, 7, 256–273.
21.
DolanM. C.RennieC. E. (2007). The relationship between psychopathic traits measured by the Youth Psychopathic trait Inventory and psychopathology in a UK sample of conduct disordered boys. Journal of Adolescence, 30, 601–611.
22.
DurlaufS. N.NaginD. S. (2011). Imprisonment and crime: Can both be reduced?Criminology & Public Policy, 10, 13–54.
23.
EdensJ. F.CampbellJ. S.WeirJ. M. (2007). Youth psychopathy and criminal recidivism: A meta-analysis of the psychopathy checklist measures. Law and Human Behavior, 31, 53–75.
24.
LoeberR.FarringtonD. P. (2000). Young children who commit crime: Epidemiology, developmental origins, risk fac- tors, early interventions, and policy implications. Development and Psychopathology, 12, 737–762.
25.
FignerB.WeberE. U. (2011). Who takes risks when and why? Determinants of risk taking. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 20, 211–216.
26.
ForthA.KossonD.HareR. D. (2003). The Hare Psychopathy Checklist: Youth version, technical manual. Multi-Health Systems, Inc.
27.
GeerlingsY.AsscherJ. J.StamsG. J. J. M.AssinkM. (2020). The association between psychopathy and delinquency in juveniles: A three-level meta-analysis. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 50, 101342.
28.
GendreauP.LittleT.GogginC. (1996). A meta-analysis of the predictors of adult offender recidivism: What works! Criminology, 34, 575–608.
29.
GrasmickH. G.BursikR. J. (1990). Conscience, significant others, and rational choice: Extending the deterrence model. Journal of Law and Society Association, 24, 837–862.
30.
GregoryS.BlairR. J.FfytcheD.SimmonsA.KumariV.HodginsS.BlackwoodN. (2015). Punishment and psychopathy: A case-control functional MRI investigation of reinforcement learning in violent antisocial personality disordered men. The Lancet Psychiatry, 2, 153–160.
31.
HareR. D. (1996). Psychopathy: A clinical construct whose time has come. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 23, 25–54.
32.
HareR. D.HartS. D. (1993). Psychopathy, mental disorder, and crime. In HodginsS. (Ed.), Mental disorder and crime (pp. 104–115). Sage Publications.
33.
HartS. D.HareR. D. (1998). Association between psychopathy and narcissism: Theoretical views and empirical evidence. In RonningstamE. F. (Ed.), Disorders of narcissism: Diagnostic, clinical, and empirical implications (pp. 415–436). American Psychiatric Press.
34.
HawesS. W.MulveyE. P.SchubertC. A.PardiniD. A. (2014). Structural coherence and temporal stability of psychopathic personality features during emerging adulthood. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 123, 623–633.
35.
HirschiT. (1969). Causes of delinquency. University of California.
36.
Hosker-FieldA. M.MolnarD. S.BookA. S. (2016). Psychopathy and risk taking: Examining the role of risk perception. Personality and Individual Differences, 91, 123–132.
37.
HuL.BentlerP. M. (1999). Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 6, 1–55.
38.
HuizingaD.EsbensenF. A.WeiherA. W. (1991). Are there multiple paths to delinquency?The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 82, 83–118.
39.
JacobsB. A. (2010). Deterrence and deterrability. Criminology, 48, 417–441.
40.
JamshidianM.JalalS.JansenC. (2014). MissMech: An R package for testing homoscedasticity, multivariate normality, and missing completely at random (MCAR). Journal of Statistical Software, 56, 1–31.
41.
JonesS.CauffmanE.MillerJ. D.MulveyE. P. (2006). Investigating different factor structures of the psychopathy checklist: Youth version: Confirmatory factor analytic findings. Psychological Assessment, 18, 33–48.
42.
KnightG. P.LittleM.LosoyaS. H.MulveyE. P. (2004). The self-report of offending among serious offenders: Cross-gender, Cross-ethnic/race measurement equivalence. Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice, 2, 273–295.
43.
KutchenT. J.WygantD. B.TylickiJ. L.DieterA. M.VeltriC. O. C.SellbomM. (2017). Construct validity of the MMPI–2–RF triarchic psychopathy scales in correctional and collegiate samples. Journal of Personality Assessment, 99, 408–415.
44.
LandenbergerN. A.LipseyM. W. (2005). The positive effects of cognitive-behavioral programs for offenders: A meta-analysis of factors associated with effective treatment. Journal of Experimental Criminology, 1, 451–476.
45.
LeeH.SullivanC. J.BarnesJ. C. (2018). Maturity of judgment and perceptual deterrence. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 45, 1762–1781.
46.
LeeY.KimJ. (2020). Psychopathic traits among serious juvenile offenders: Developmental pathways, multidimensionality, and stability. Crime and Delinquency, 67, 82.110.
47.
LilienfeldS. O.WidowsM. R. (2005). Psychopathic personality inventory—Revised (PPI-R) professional manual. Psychological Assessment Resources.
48.
LópezR.PoyR.PatrickC. J.MoltóJ. (2013). Deficient fear conditioning and self-reported psychopathy: The role of fearless dominance. Psychophysiology, 50, 210–218.
49.
LoughranT. A.PaternosterR.ChalfinA.WilsonT. (2016). Can rational choice be considered a general theory of crime? Evidence from individual-level panel data. Criminology, 54, 86–112.
50.
LoughranT. A.PiqueroA. R.FaganJ.MulveyE. P. (2012). Differential deterrence: Studying heterogeneity and changes in perceptual deterrence among serious youthful offenders. Crime and Delinquency, 58, 3–27.
51.
LoughranT. A.PogarskyG.PiqueroA. R.PaternosterR. (2012). Re-examining the functional form of the certainty effect in deterrence theory. Justice Quarterly, 29, 712–741.
52.
LynamD. R.LoeberR.Stouthamer-LoeberM. (2008). The stability of psychopathy from adolescence into adulthood: The search for moderators. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 35, 228–243.
53.
LynamD. R.MillerD. J.VachonD.LoeberR.Stouthamer-LoeberM. (2009). Psychopathy in adolescence predicts official reports of offending in adulthood. Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice, 7, 189–207.
54.
MagarE. C. E.PhillipsL. H.HosieJ. A. (2008). Self-regulation and risk-taking. Personality and Individual Differences, 45, 153–159.
55.
MulveyE. P.SchubertC. A.PiqueroA. (2014). Pathways to desistance: Final technical report. National Institute of Justice.
56.
NaginD. S. (2013). Deterrence in the twenty-first century. Crime and Justice, 42, 199–263.
57.
NaginD. S.PaternosterR. (1993). Enduring individual differences and rational choice theories of crime. Law & Society Review, 27, 467–496.
PaternosterR. (2010). How much do we really know about criminal deterrence?Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 100, 765–824.
60.
PaulhusD. L. (1998). Interpersonal and intrapsychic adaptiveness of trait self-enhancement: A mixed blessing?Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 1197–1208.
61.
PiqueroA. R.JenningsW. G.FarringtonD. P.DiamondB.GonzalezJ. M. R. (2016). A meta-analysis update on the effectiveness of early self-control improvement programs to improve self-control and reduce delinquency. Journal of Experimental Criminology, 12, 249–264.
62.
PiqueroA. R.PaternosterR.PogarskyG.LoughranT. (2011). Elaborating the individual difference component in deterrence theory. Annual Review of Law and Social Science, 7, 335–360.
63.
PiqueroA. R.SchubertC. A.BrameR. (2014). Comparing official and self-report records of offending across gender and race/ethnicity in a longitudinal study of serious youthful offenders. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 51, 526–556.
64.
PiqueroA. R.TibbettsS. (1996). Specifying the direct and indirect effects of low self-control and situational factors in offenders’ decision making: Toward a more complete model of rational offending. Justice Quarterly, 13, 481–510.
65.
PogarskyG. (2002). Identifying “deterrable” offenders: Implications for research on deterrence. Justice Quarterly, 19, 431–452.
66.
PogarskyG. (2007). Deterrence and individual differences among convicted offenders. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 23, 59–74.
67.
PogarskyG.LoughranT. A. (2016). The policy-to-perceptions link in deterrence: Time to retire the clearance rate. Criminology and Public Policy, 15, 777–790.
68.
PrattT. C. (2016). A self-control/life-course theory of criminal behavior. European Journal of Criminology, 13, 129–146.
69.
PrattT. C.CullenF. T.BlevinsK. R.DaigleL. E.MadensenT. D. (2006). The empirical status of deterrence theory: A meta-analysis. In CullenF. T.WrightJ. P.BlevinsK. R. (Eds.), Taking stock: The status of criminological theory (pp. 367–395). Transaction Publishers.
70.
RayJ. V.BakerT.CaudyM. S. (2020). Revisiting the generality of rational choice theory: Evidence for general patterns but differential effects across varying levels of psychopathy. Journal of Criminal Justice, 66, 101654.
71.
ReidyD. E.Shelley-TremblayJ. F.LilienfeldS. O. (2011). Psychopathy, reactive aggression, and precarious proclamations: A review of behavioral, cognitive, and biological research. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 16, 512–524.
72.
RosseelY. (2012). lavaan: An R package for structural equation modeling. Journal of Statistical Software, 48, 1–36.
73.
RothemundY.ZieglerS.HermannC.GruesserS. M.FoellJ.PatrickC. J.FlorH. (2012). Fear conditioning in psychopaths: Event-related potentials and peripheral measures. Biological Psychology, 90, 50–59.
74.
SchwartzJ. A.ConnollyE. J.BrauerJ. R. (2017). Head injuries and changes in delinquency from adolescence to emerging adulthood: The importance of self-control as a mediating influence. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 54, 869–901.
75.
Seara-CardosoA.QueirósA.FernandesE.CoutinhoJ.NeumannC. (2020). Psychometric properties and construct validity of the short version of the self-report psychopathy scale in a southern European sample. Journal of Personality Assessment, 102, 457–468.
76.
ShahA. D.BartlettJ. W.CarpenterJ.NicholasO.HemingwayH. (2014). Comparison of random forest and parametric imputation models for imputing missing data using MICE: A CALIBER study. American Journal of Epidemiology, 179, 764–774.
77.
ShawJ.PorterS. (2012). Forever a psychopath? Psychopathy and the criminal career trajectory. In NyholmJ.-O.Häkkänen-NyholmH. (Eds.), Psychopathy and law: A practitioner’s guide (pp. 201–221). John Wiley & Sons.
78.
ShouY.SellbomM.XuJ.ChenT.SuiA. (2017). Elaborating on the construct validity of Triarchic Psychopathy Measure in Chinese clinical and nonclinical samples. Psychological Assessment, 29, 1071–1081.
79.
ShulmanE. P.CauffmanE.PiqueroA. R.FaganJ. (2011). Moral disengagement among serious juvenile offenders: A longitudinal study of the relations between morally disengaged attitudes and offending. Developmental Psychology, 47, 1619–1632.
80.
SkeemJ. L.CauffmanE. (2003). Views of the downward extension: Comparing the youth version of the psychopathy checklist with the youth psychopathic traits inventory. Behavioral Sciences and the Law, 21, 737–770.
81.
SkeemJ. L.PolaschekD. L. L.PatrickC. J.LilienfeldS. O. (2011). Psychopathic personality: Bridging the gap between scientific evidence and public policy. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, Supplement, 12, 95–162.
82.
StekhovenD. J.BühlmannP. (2012). MissForest—non-parametric missing value imputation for mixed-type data. Bioinformatics, 28, 112–118.
83.
StillmanT. F.BaumeisterR. F. (2010). Guilty, free, and wise: Determinism and psychopathy diminish learning from negative emotions. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46, 951–960.
84.
SullivanC. J. (2019). Taking juvenile justice seriously: Developmental insights and system challenges. Temple University Press.
85.
ThomasK. J.LoughranT. A.PiqueroA. R. (2013). Do individual characteristics explain variation in sanction risk updating among serious juvenile offenders? Advancing the logic of differential deterrence. Law and Human Behavior, 37, 10–21.
86.
UmbachR.BerryessaC. M.RaineA. (2015). Brain imaging research on psychopathy: Implications for punishment, prediction, and treatment in youth and adults. Journal of Criminal Justice, 43, 295–306.
87.
VaughnM. G.HowardM. O.DeLisiM. (2008). Psychopathic personality traits and delinquent careers: An empirical examination. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 31, 407–416.
88.
VeitR.KonicarL.KlinzingJ. G.BarthB.YilmazÖ.BirbaumerN. (2013). Deficient fear conditioning in psychopathy as a function of interpersonal and affective disturbances. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 7, 1–12.
89.
WaltersG. D.DeLisiM. (2015). Psychopathy and violence: Does antisocial cognition mediate the relationship between the PCL: YV factor scores and violent offending?Law and Human Behavior, 39, 350–359.
90.
WechslerD. (1999). Manual for the Wechsler abbreviated intelligence scale (WASI). The Psychological Corporation.
91.
WeinbergerD. A.SchwartzG. E. (1990). Distress and restraint as superordinate dimensions of self-reported adjustment: A typological perspective. Journal of Personality, 58, 381–417.
92.
WeisburdD.PiqueroA. R. (2008). How well do criminologists explain crime? Statistical modeling in published studies. Crime and Justice, 37, 453–502.
93.
WellerJ. A.TikirA. (2011). Predicting domain-specific risk taking with the HEXACO personality structure. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 24, 180–201.
94.
WikströmP.-O. H.OberwittlerD.TreiberK.HardieB.DelhiN. (2017). Situational action theory. In MazerolleP. (Ed.), Developmental and life-course criminological theories. (pp. 106–125). Taylor & Francis.
95.
WikströmP.-O. H.TreiberK. H. (2009). Violence as situational action. International Journal of Conflict and Violence, 3, 75–96.
96.
WilsonT.PaternosterR.LoughranT. (2017). Direct and indirect experiential effects in an updating model of deterrence: A research note. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 54, 63–77.
97.
WrightB.CaspiA.MoffittT. E.PaternosterR. (2004). Does the perceived risk of punishment deter criminally prone individuals? Rational choice, self-control, and crime. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 41, 180–213.
98.
WrightR.DeckerS. H. (1997). Armed robbers in action. Northeastern University Press.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
