Although reliability is essential to validity, most research on violence risk assessment tools has paid little attention to strategies for improving rater agreement. The authors evaluated the degree to which perceived subjectivity in scoring guidelines for items from two measures--the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) and the Historical,…

A taxometric analysis of the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) is conducted on a group of 409 male maximum-, medium-, and minimum-security federal prison inmates using the four PCL-R facet scores (interpersonal, affective, impulsive lifestyle, and antisocial behavior) as indicators. Results obtained from three quasi-independent taxometric…

David Cooke and colleagues have published a series of item response theory (IRT) studies investigating the equivalence of the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) for European versus North American (NA) male criminal offenders. They have consistently concluded that PCL-R scores are not equivalent, with European offenders receiving scores up to…

The authors compared 2-, 3-, 4-factor, and 2-factor/4-facet Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) models in a previously unpublished sample of 1,566 adult male sex offenders assessed under applied clinical conditions as part of a comprehensive state-mandated community notification risk assessment procedure. "Testlets" significantly…