Attribution of blame for criminal acts and its relationship with psychopathy as measured by the Hare Psychopathic Checklist (PCL-SV)

Abstract

The concept of psychopathy describes disordered individuals as lacking in responsibility and feelings of guilt for their actions. The aim of the current study was to investigate the relationship between blame attribution (measured by the Gudjonsson Blame Attribution Inventory- Revised – GBAI-R) and psychopathy (measured by the Hare Psychopathic Checklist-Revised – PCL-SV) among mentally disordered offenders. It was hypothesised that psychopathy would correlate positively with external attribution of blame and negatively with feelings of guilt. Participants were 67 males from six medium secure units in the south east of England. A significant positive correlation was found between psychopathy (Factor 1 and Total score) and external attribution of blame, but not between psychopathy and feelings of guilt. The findings suggest that external attribution of blame is more associated with the interpersonal, affective and attitudinal factors of psychopathy (i.e. social–cognitive processes) than behavioural aspects (i.e. poor behavioural control).

Keywords:

• secure units
• psychopathy
• crime
• blame
• external attribution

Acknowledgements

Many Thanks to Professor Tom Fahy lead researcher of the ‘parent study’ who kindly agreed to share his data for use in current research project. Thanks are extended to Professor Fahy's research team which collected the data for the ‘parent study’.