an examination of the factor structure of the psychopathy checklist

they are less likely to use reactive violence when it could put them at risk of suffering
the consequences.
In consideration of this hypothesis, the null findings in this sample may be due to
the less severe nature of the crimes being perpetrated (i.e., generally violent vs.
homicide) among the violent youth offenders in this sample. For instance, among the
current sample of female youth, the overall level of violence, although serious, was not
particularly severe. Indeed, 83.8% of offenses involved violence that was classified as
minor or no victim injury. Further, only three (2.3%) victims were categorized as having
sustained severe injury. It may be that there is less self-monitoring of their impulsivity as
there would be in a high-stakes crime and as a result there is less instrumentality
involved. In fact, an examination of the current study’s findings in relation to other
studies that have involved more serious crime (e.g., Agar, 2009; Woodworth & Porter,
2002), suggest that there is a gradual transformation from reactive to instrumentally
motivated offences based on the severity of the crime, which is postulated under the
selective impulsivity hypothesis.
The results from the current study were also consistent with Cook et al.’s (2010)
findings among their small violent female offender sample. They demonstrated that
youth scoring high on the PCL:YV did not differ from low-scoring female offenders in
their use of proactive (instrumental) violence. When examining male youth (n = 47),
however, these researchers found that offenders scoring high on the PCL:YV did
display higher rates of proactive violence. Unfortunately, the severity of violence
displayed in these two samples was not measured and therefore cannot be directly
compared to the present findings. In fact, the severity of violence that these female and
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