The Assessment of Psychopathic Personality Disturbance Among Adolescent Male Offenders: Interview Strategies and Recommendations

Abstract

Although it is relatively common for some practitioners to assess psychopathic personality disturbance (PPD) among adolescent offenders, little has been said about interview skills and strategies that are helpful for an accurate assessment. Thus, this article provided recommendations for improving interview protocols for the assessment of PPD among incarcerated adolescent offenders. These recommendations were based on experiences interviewing adolescents from the Incarcerated Serious and Violent Young Offender Study and related to: (1) establishing and improving rapport, (2) responding to dishonesty, (3) tailoring the interview for adolescents as opposed to adults, (4) the importance of follow-up questions, and (5) recognizing and responding to symptoms of PPD that emerge during the interview. Vignettes of interviews with incarcerated adolescent males were used to help illustrate recommendations and strategies. Future research should systematically measure what works and what does not work when implementing interview strategies, including whether such strategies generalize across gender and culture.

Keywords:

• Interview skills
• adolescence
• psychopathy

Notes

1 We use the term PPD rather than psychopathy given ethical concerns regarding the labeling of children and adolescents (e.g., Edens, Skeem, Cruise, & Cauffman, 2001).