an examination of the factor structure of the psychopathy checklist

study also suggest a difference in the instrumentality of offences across gender; female
youth who commit instrumental aggression are potentially using a greater degree of
planning or preparation prior to these offenses. Further, the finding that the lack of
anger item is not central to the construct of instrumental aggression among females
once again highlights our earlier finding that affective arousal is not a principal
component of instrumental aggression.
4.1 Limitations
The findings from this study must be considered in light of some methodological
limitations. First, this was an archival study; information was collected through file
review since interviews could not be conducted with participants as they were no longer
receiving assessment or treatment services. Therefore, although the client files were
generally quite comprehensive and research has shown that scoring of the PCL:YV
based on file review is a valid, acceptable method (Bolt et al., 2004; Forth, 2005; Grann
et al., 1998; Wong, 1988), interviews may have been beneficial especially when
assessing the interpersonal and affective items of the PCL:YV. Relatedly, the initial
psychological and psychiatric evaluations of the youth in the current sample, which were
used in conjunction with other file information to inform PCL:YV ratings, may have been
biased by semantic matching on the part of the interviewee (i.e., the youth). In other
words, the semantic style of the interviewer may have been mimicked in the youth’s
responses to the interviewer’s questions which may have led to either a more or less
favourable clinical impression of the youth being assessed (Hancock, Curry, Goorha, &
Woodworth, 2008). Consequently, using the clinicians’ assessment of a particular youth,
their PCL:YV score may have been either inflated or deflated in comparison to their true
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