A review and meta-analysis of the psychopathy checklist and psychopathy checklist-revised: Predictive validity of dangerousness

The Psychopathy Checklist (PCL/PCL-R) continues to receive recognition among clinicians and researchers for its ability to predict violent and nonviolent recidivism. This article reviews the psychometric properties and the clinical utility of the PCL-R and reports a meta-analysis of 18 studies that investigate the relationship between the PCL/PCL-R and violent and nonviolent recidivism. We found that the PCL and the PCL-R had moderate to strong effect sizes and appear to be good predictors of violence and general recidivism. As a component of dangerousness assessments, psychologists may want to consider utilizing the PCL-R when making probability statements regarding placement decisions in institutions, parole and conditional release decisions, and community placement decisions for psychiatric patients. The generalizability of the PCL beyond these groups, which have primarily consisted of Anglo-American samples, is still in question and requires further research.