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This investigation examined the reliability, validity, and factor structure of the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) in male adult Spanish prison populations (n = 117). The interrater reliability and internal consistency coefficients were high, and similar to those obtained in other countries. This data provides support for the homogeneity and unidimensionality of the psychopathy construct in Spanish male prison samples. The analysis of factor structure also replicated the two factor solution of previous studies. The two factors showed different patterns of intercorrelations with several self report measures of personality, demographic, and criminal history variables, which confirmed the construct validity of PCL-R. The results confirm the psychometric properties of the PCL-R as a measure of psychopathy in Spanish male inmates, and suggest that psychopathy is a construct also observed in Southern European countries.
Over the last decade, the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R; Hare, 1991) and its precursor, the Hare Psychopathy Checklist (PCL; Hare, 1980), have become the standard instruments for operationalizing the psychopathy construct with offenders and psychiatric/forensic populations (Mealey, 1995; Thomas-Peter, 1992; Zagon, 1995). The studies of PCL-R's psychometric properties support its reliability, validity, and usefulness in North American prison populations (Hare, 1980, 1991; Hare, Harpur, Hakstian, Forth, Hart, & Newman, 1990). Recently, the Twelfth Mental Measurements Yearbook (Conoley & Impara, 1995) acknowledged that "the PCL-R is the "state of the art" in this area (the evaluation of the psychopathy), both clinically and in research use" (Fulero, 1995, p. 454).
The PCL-R is a reliable and valid rating scale that is not only applicable for research and clinical purposes (Hare, 1991; Hart, Hare & Harpur, 1992), but also for the assessment of psychopathy, which has been increasingly incorporated into the field of legal psychology and the criminal justice system in countries such as the United States and Canada. In these settings, high scores in the PCL-R have proved to be relevant to decisions that concern such matters as sentencing, inmates' assignment to prisons, the granting of temporary absences or conditional release, prediction of recidivism and predisposition to violence, and suitable treatment programs (Hare & McPherson, 1984; Hart, Kropp, & Hare, 1988; Serin, Peters, & Barbaree, 1990; Serin, 1996). The appropriate resolution of these matters is of paramount importance both to clinicians and to other decision...