The relationship between psychopathy and conviction rates: Examining the conviction-to-charge ratio

ABSTRACT

Although it is well established that individuals with psychopathic traits commit more crimes than individuals without psychopathic traits, the association between psychopathy and success in the criminal justice system (CJS) is less understood. We addressed this issue by examining relationships between psychopathic traits and the conviction-to-charge ratio (CCR) in 355 incarcerated adult male offenders who were also assessed on the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised. This study was unique in examining a comprehensive dataset of state and federal criminal records. No relationships between CCR and psychopathy ratings were found in the present study. However, scores on a modified CCR that included sets of charges without dispositions yielded both unique and zero-order relationships between interpersonal features and conviction rates. These results suggest that the interpersonal traits may be uniquely associated with some indices of decreased success in the CJS. Future research should examine what is driving this unique relationship.

KEYWORDS:

• Psychopathy
• success
• criminal justice system
• conviction
• charge

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Ms. Rose Gray, Ms. Kelli Quinn, Mr. Robert Verborg, and the rest of the staff at the 19th Judicial Circuit in Illinois, for their support of this project and their contributions to the development of scoring procedures for coding criminal activity data. We are also grateful to Emma Faith for their contribution to rating files for the calculation of interrater agreement.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data Availability Statement

Due the confidential nature of this research, data are unable to be shared. The authors for the present study had to obtain special permission from the 19th Judicial Circuit Court – Division of Probation in Illinois to access the data, and thus, do not have legal authority to share the data.

Notes

1 Previous research has provided evidence that some individuals with psychopathic traits in the community (e.g., business professionals and politicians) are able to avoid the consequences of their antisocial behavior under some conditions (e.g., Babiak et al., 2010; Lilienfeld et al., 2015). Such findings have contributed to increasing interest in what is sometimes called “successful psychopathy” (Babiak & Hare, 2006; Smith et al., 2014). Much of the research on success among offenders with psychopathic traits has focused on the characteristics of individuals with psychopathic traits who avoid contact with the CJS altogether (e.g., Gao & Raine, 2010; Mullins-Nelson et al., 2006). This focus on a subset of individuals with psychopathic traits who may be especially successful does not preclude research on whether psychopathic traits are more generally associated with successful criminal behavior.

2 Until 2010, criminal defendants aged 17 and above in Illinois were charged and prosecuted in adult court for both felonies and misdemeanors (Illinois Juvenile Justice Commission, n.d.). Furthermore, in all jurisdictions in the U.S., juveniles may face charges in adult court due to the seriousness of the offense (Meister et al., n.d.). Thus, although most criminal cases in the current study involve individuals aged 18 or older, the criminal history data may have included records for criminal charges and dispositions that occurred when some individuals were under the age of 18 because they were tried in adult court. Consequently, in such cases, the rating on PCL-R Item 18 and the CCR could partly reflect the same information.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported in part by National Institute of Mental Health Grant R01 MH57714 to David Kosson. The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the National Institute of Mental Health. There are no potential conflicts of interest for the authors of this research. The data contain sensitive information regarding the criminal histories of participants that is not made available to the public; therefore, permission to access this data is made through an application for research to the 19th Judicial Circuit of Illinois. Foundation for the National Institutes of Health.