Indexing Adolescent Psychopathy: Commentary on Dawson, McCuish, Hart, and Corrado

Abstract

This commentary addresses four main issues raised in the original Dawson et al. article¹ which suggested that the CAPP-IRS may offer advantages over the PCL-YV. The advantages that were proposed included its content domain, rating scale, personality focus, as well as developmentally sensitive and dynamic items. The Dawson et al. article also criticized the PCL-YV for having a limited research base. In this commentary, we address these issues comparing the PCL-YV and the CAPP-IRS, shedding light on the potential strengths and weaknesses of each measure. We conclude that it is too early to make such claims about the CAPP-IRS, but that the pursuit of understanding adolescent psychopathy, including its content domain and its developmental course, is an important undertaking. We also conclude that there will likely be a number of indices, including those provided by the PCL-YV and perhaps the CAPP-IRS that can help with this aim.

Acknowledgments

This commentary is based on an earlier version of the Dawson et al. paper which was the only version provided to the authors for comment. The original version stated that the CAPP-IRS offered advantages over the PCL-YV for the following reasons: 1) larger content domain, 2) rating system with a wider range (0–7), 3) a comparable research base to the PCL-YV, 4) dynamic and developmentally sensitive items, and 5) that the PCL-YV was too heavily based on behavior. The earlier article did not appear to provide sufficient justification for these claims and, in our commentary, the pros and cons of each measure are presented