Do some evaluators report consistently higher or lower PCL-R scores than others? Findings from a statewide sample of sexually violent predator evaluations.

Abstract

This study examined whether some evaluators tend to report consistently higher or lower scores than other evaluators for offenders on the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R; R. D. Hare, 1991, 2003). Data for the study were PCL-R total scores for 321 sex offenders, evaluated by 1 or more of 20 different state-contracted evaluators, during a process of screening for civil commitment as sexually violent predators. More than 30% of the variability in PCL-R scores was attributable to differences among evaluators, with mean PCL-R scores given by 2 of the most prolific evaluators differing by almost 10 points. In a subsample of 22 offenders evaluated with the PCL-R on 2 or more occasions, evaluator agreement (intraclass correlation -sub(A,1) = .47) was low. Together, these findings raise concerns about the field reliability of the PCL-R and suggest the need for research examining field reliability of other measures used in forensic assessment.