From prediction to explanation: Is the relationship between youth psychopathy traits and continued offending in adulthood mediated by social environment?

Studies that focus on whether psychopathy statistically predicts reoffending are not informative of the process that connects the putative cause (psychopathy) to the expected outcome (offending). Understanding the causal mechanisms responsible for the relationship between psychopathy and offending has received minimal empirical attention even though fourth-generation risk assessment protocols and treatment strategies regularly require a specific focus on psychopathy. Theory can help guide an improved understanding of the causal mechanisms underlying the relationship between psychopathy and offending.

The cross-cultural generalizability of the Psychopathy Checklist: Youth version for adjudicated indigenous youth.

There is a paucity of Indigenous-specific research examining the reliability and validity of assessment tools routinely utilized within the justice system. Evaluating the cross-cultural reliability and validity of such tools is important for establishing generalizability as part of ethical practices; this is particularly important to address within Canada's Indigenous youth population because of longstanding effects of colonization, structural adversities, and overrepresentation in the youth justice system and the possible long-term impact of improper assessment on adult outcomes. A step toward this aim was undertaken in the current study by comparing scale reliability, structural validity, measurement invariance, and predictive validity of the Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version (PCL:YV) across Indigenous (n = 137) and White (n = 312) adjudicated youth.

Abuse Experiences of Family Members, Child Maltreatment, and the Development of Sex Offending Among Incarcerated Adolescent Males.

Child sexual abuse is considered a risk factor for the development of sexual offending in adolescence. Beyond this, comparisons of the risk factor profiles between adolescent sex offenders (ASOs) and adolescent non-sex offenders (ANSOs) have uncovered minimal differences. However, differences between ASOs and ANSOs in terms of patterns in the abuse histories of their family members have rarely been studied.

Examining Antisocial Behavioral Antecedents of Juvenile Sexual Offenders and Juvenile Non-Sexual Offenders.

In prospective longitudinal studies of juvenile offenders, the presence of multiple developmental pathways of antisocial behaviors has consistently been identified. An "antisocial" type of juvenile sex offender (JSO) has also been identified; however, whether antisocial JSOs follow different antisocial pathways has not been examined. In the current study, differences in antisocial pathways within JSOs and between JSOs and juvenile non-sex offenders (JNSOs) were examined.