an examination of the factor structure of the psychopathy checklist

motivated. Secondly, examination of the specific motivations for offences that contained
at least some instrumental component demonstrated that violence was most frequently
used to gain revenge or retribution. The second most frequent motivation for the use of
instrumental violence among the current sample was monetary gain. These findings are
consistent with studies at both the adult (e.g., Woodworth & Porter, 2002) and youth
(e.g., Carpenter, 2010) level that have specifically examined primary motivation for the
use of instrumentality suggesting that regardless of crime severity (i.e., homicide vs.
generally violent), age of the sample (i.e., adult or youth), and gender (i.e., male or
female), these two motives are most likely when an offender engage in instrumental
violence.
Our results also revealed that these female youth are equally likely to victimize
strangers and those having a specific relationship to the offender (e.g., group home
worker, school teacher, etc.), followed by acquaintances. Victims who were friends or
family were much less frequently targeted. Research among adult male samples have
shown that psychopaths are more likely to target strangers (e.g., Williamson et al.,
1987; Herve, Mitchell, Cooper, Spidel, & Hare, 2004; Juodis et al., 2010). Among more
directly comparable samples (e.g., Agar, 2009; Carpenter, 2010), male and female
violent offenders’ victims were more often strangers and acquaintances rather than
friends or family members. Finally, the majority (62.3%) of these female youth were not
using drugs and/or alcohol prior to or during the offense. This finding is consistent with
Carpenter (2010), however, among youth homicide offenders (Agar, 2009) this rate
drops to 32.0%. It appears that among female youth, the use of substances may not be
a primary contributor or explanation for their engagement in generally violent offences.
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