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Were Wolfgang's chronic offenders psychopaths? On the convergent validity between psychopathy and career criminality

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  • Vaughn, Michael G.
  • DeLisi, Matt

Abstract

Both the criminal career and psychopathy literatures have empirically shown that approximately 5 percent of the criminal population accounts for the preponderance of the incidence of crime; however, these areas of inquiry are largely independent. The current study sought to integrate these literatures using a state population of incarcerated delinquents (n = 723). Descriptive, regression, and ROC-AUC analyses produced significant evidence of the effects of personality and affective psychopathic traits on career criminality net the effects of demographic and mental health controls. Psychopathic traits nearly doubled the total explanatory power of the regression model for career criminality and correctly predicted career criminal membership with accuracies ranging from 70 to 88 percent. Implications of these findings and suggestions for increased integration of criminal career and psychopathy research are proffered.

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  • Vaughn, Michael G. & DeLisi, Matt, 2008. "Were Wolfgang's chronic offenders psychopaths? On the convergent validity between psychopathy and career criminality," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 33-42, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jcjust:v:36:y::i:1:p:33-42
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Berg, Mark T. & DeLisi, Matt, 2005. "Do career criminals exist in rural America?," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 317-325.
    2. Tennenbaum, David J. & of Clinical Services, oDirector, 1977. "Personality and criminality a summary and implications of the literature," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 5(3), pages 225-235.
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    Cited by:

    1. Beaver, Kevin M. & Rowland, Meghan W. & Schwartz, Joseph A. & Nedelec, Joseph L., 2011. "The genetic origins of psychopathic personality traits in adult males and females: Results from an adoption-based study," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 39(5), pages 426-432.
    2. McCuish, Evan C. & Corrado, Raymond & Lussier, Patrick & Hart, Stephen D., 2014. "Psychopathic traits and offending trajectories from early adolescence to adulthood," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 66-76.
    3. Vaughn, Michael G. & DeLisi, Matt & Gunter, Tracy & Fu, Qiang & Beaver, Kevin M. & Perron, Brian E. & Howard, Matthew O., 2011. "The Severe 5%: A Latent Class Analysis of the Externalizing Behavior Spectrum in the United States," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 75-80.
    4. DeLisi, Matt & Vaughn, Michael G., 2015. "Ingredients for Criminality Require Genes, Temperament, and Psychopathic Personality," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 43(4), pages 290-294.
    5. Flexon, Jamie L. & Meldrum, Ryan C. & Young, Jacob T.N. & Lehmann, Peter S., 2016. "Low self-control and the Dark Triad: Disentangling the predictive power of personality traits on young adult substance use, offending and victimization," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 159-169.
    6. McCuish, Evan & Lussier, Patrick, 2023. "Twenty years in the making: Revisiting Laub and Sampson's version of life-course criminology," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    7. Ribeiro da Silva, Diana & Rijo, Daniel & Salekin, Randall T., 2012. "Child and adolescent psychopathy: A state-of-the-art reflection on the construct and etiological theories," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 40(4), pages 269-277.
    8. Collison, Katherine L. & Miller, Joshua D. & Gaughan, Eric T. & Widiger, Thomas A. & Lynam, Donald R., 2016. "Development and validation of the super-short form of the Elemental Psychopathy Assessment," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 143-150.
    9. Ray, James V., 2022. "Psychopathic traits predict patterns of gun-carrying among a sample of justice-involved youth," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    10. Corrado, Raymond R. & DeLisi, Matt & Hart, Stephen D. & McCuish, Evan C., 2015. "Can the causal mechanisms underlying chronic, serious, and violent offending trajectories be elucidated using the psychopathy construct?," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 43(4), pages 251-261.
    11. Barnes, J.C., 2014. "Catching the Really Bad Guys: An Assessment of the Efficacy of the U.S. Criminal Justice System," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 42(4), pages 338-346.
    12. Wu, Tong & Barnes, J.C., 2013. "Two dopamine receptor genes (DRD2 and DRD4) predict psychopathic personality traits in a sample of American adults," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 41(3), pages 188-195.
    13. Corrado, Raymond R. & McCuish, Evan C. & Hart, Stephen D. & DeLisi, Matt, 2015. "The role of psychopathic traits and developmental risk factors on offending trajectories from early adolescence to adulthood: A prospective study of incarcerated youth," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 43(4), pages 357-368.
    14. Lussier, Patrick & McCuish, Evan & Corrado, Raymond, 2022. "Psychopathy and the prospective prediction of adult offending through age 29: Revisiting unfulfilled promises of developmental criminology," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    15. DeLisi, Matt & Piquero, Alex R., 2011. "New frontiers in criminal careers research, 2000-2011: A state-of-the-art review," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 39(4), pages 289-301, July.
    16. Vaughn, Michael G. & Litschge, Christine & DeLisi, Matt & Beaver, Kevin M. & McMillen, Curtis J., 2008. "Psychopathic personality features and risks for criminal justice system involvement among emancipating foster youth," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(10), pages 1101-1110, October.
    17. Shaffer, Catherine & McCuish, Evan & Corrado, Raymond R. & Behnken, Monic P. & DeLisi, Matt, 2015. "Psychopathy and violent misconduct in a sample of violent young offenders," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 43(4), pages 321-326.
    18. Beaver, Kevin M. & Nedelec, Joseph L. & da Silva Costa, Christian & Poersch, Ana Paula & Stelmach, Mônica Celis & Freddi, Micheli Cristina & Gajos, Jamie M. & Boccio, Cashen, 2014. "The association between psychopathic personality traits and health-related outcomes," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 42(5), pages 399-407.
    19. Fox, Bryanna H. & Jennings, Wesley G. & Farrington, David P., 2015. "Bringing psychopathy into developmental and life-course criminology theories and research," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 43(4), pages 274-289.
    20. McCuish, Evan C. & Corrado, Raymond R. & Hart, Stephen D. & DeLisi, Matt, 2015. "The role of symptoms of psychopathy in persistent violence over the criminal career into full adulthood," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 43(4), pages 345-356.

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