an examination of the factor structure of the psychopathy checklist

Abstract
Female youth are a strikingly understudied population within the accumulated
forensic literature which is particularly troubling since adolescent females represent a
significant and growing population within forensic contexts. The Psychopathy Checklist:
Youth Version (PCL:YV; Forth, Kosson, & Hare, 2003) was created to assess
psychopathic traits among adolescents, which include interpersonal deceptiveness,
affective deficits, and impulsive, antisocial tendencies. However, to ensure its proper
use, the underlying factor structure of the PCL:YV must be determined. The primary
purpose of this thesis was to examine whether the two-factor, three-factor, or four-facet
model is most appropriate for female youth. This is the first study to simultaneously
examine all three of the primary factor models among a North American sample of
violent female youth offenders. Results demonstrated that the three-factor model is the
best-fitting of the three primary PCL:YV factor models among violent female youth
offenders.
Further, the extant research has repeatedly demonstrated a relationship between
the presence of psychopathic traits and instrumental aggression, however, researchers
have only recently begun to examine this relationship among juvenile offenders, and
females have often been excluded or represent only a small proportion of mixed
samples. A secondary goal of the current thesis was to examine the relationship
between psychopathy total, factor, and facet scores and instrumental aggression in a
sample of female offenders. Contrary to previous studies on male youth, results
revealed that female youth with psychopathic traits were not significantly more likely to
use instrumental violence in the commission of their violent crimes. Findings and their
respective research and clinical applications are discussed.
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