What is psychopathy & why does it matter? Dr Tanya Garrett explains the diagnosis & its implications for criminal & family proceedings
- Psychopathy is a form of personality disorder characterised by emotional detachment and social deviance.
- Understanding whether someone has psychopathic traits is important for considering parenting capacity, risk, and identifying what interventions are needed.
You might have seen the book Snakes in Suits by Paul Babiak and Robert D Hare. Sounds like a terrible pop psychology book, doesn’t it? In fact, Hare is the original author of the Psychopathy Checklist–Revised (PCL-R)—the ‘gold standard’ assessment for psychopathy that you’ll see used in psychological and psychiatric expert reports, where psychopathy is thought to be an issue.
The checklist has 20 items and is completed on the basis of an assessment and file review, often as part of a broader assessment of risk (of violence, sexual violence or domestic abuse). Sometimes the PCL-SV (Psychopathy Checklist–Screening Version) might be used when time is limited; I’ve used it when I suspected psychopathy but didn’t have funding to carry out
