Fledgling psychopathy: a view from personality theory

Abstract

Although the author agrees with Seagrave and Grisso that the research base does not yet support the use of extant measures of juvenile psychopathy in forensic settings, he disagrees with the general pessimism of Seagrave and Grisso regarding the assessment of juvenile psychopathy. The author argues that data drawn from basic research in personality argues against the concern that normative development changes will cloud the assessment of psychopathy. Additionally, the present author argues that fledgling psychopathy holds the key to successful intervention.