PSYCHOPATHY IN INSTRUMENTAL AND REACTIVE VIOLENT OFFENDERS

Can violent offenders who commit acts of instrumental aggression for g oal-oriented purposes such as robbery be distinguished from those who commit acts of reactive (or hostile) aggression in response to provoca tion? Because violent offenders often have a history of both instrumen tal and reactive aggression, this study distinguished between offender s with a history of at least 1 instrumental violent offense and offend ers with a history of reactive violent offenses. Two studies rested th e hypothesis that instrumental offenders would score higher than react ive offenders and nonviolent offenders on R. D. Hare's (1991) Psychopa thy Checklist. The first study sample consisted of 106 violent and non violent offenders recruited from a medium-security correctional facili ty. The second study sample consisted of 50 violent offenders referred for pretrial forensic evaluation. In both samples, instrumental offen ders could be reliably distinguished from reactive offenders on the ba sis of violent crime behavior and level of psychopathy. Group differen ces could not be attributed to participant age, race, length of incarc eration, or extent of prior criminal record.