Youth Psychopathic Traits and Their Impact on Long-Term Criminal Offending Trajectories

The current study examined long-term offending patterns in relation to youth psychopathic traits. Criminal records of 126 adolescent offenders (80 male; 46 female) were analyzed for criminal activity between the ages of 12 and 23. Total scores on the Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version were positively correlated with a higher number of overall offending incidents. After classifying youths into low (n = 62), moderate (n = 26), and high (n = 38) psychopathic trait groups, results indicated that the moderate- and high-trait groups had consistently higher mean rates of criminal events (i.e., violent, nonviolent, drug related, and technical violations) throughout the follow-up period than the low-trait group. Contrary to what has been argued in previous psychopathy literature, a decrease in offending over time was observed in all three psychopathic trait groups. These results suggest that youths with psychopathic traits tend to display a higher level of criminal activity during adolescence, but are similar to lower psychopathic groups in also showing at least an initial decline in this behavior as they approach early adulthood.