The PCL-R is a 20-item symptom construct rating scale used predominantly in forensic settings. More recently, the PCL-R is also being used on other groups: female forensic populations, sex offenders, and adolescent offenders (Grann, Langstrom, Tengstrom & Kullgren, 1999). It was originally designed to identify the degree of a person’s (adult forensic population) psychopathic tendencies. The PCL-R is used to diagnose psychopathy in individuals across clinical, legal, and research contexts. A psychopath is characterised by the following symptoms: lack of conscience or sense of guilt lack of empathy egocentricity pathological lying disregard for the law and social convention shallow emotion and a history of victimising others (Hare, 1993). The Hare Psychopathy Checklist – Revised (PCL-R) is a diagnostic tool that was developed in the 1990s and is used to rate a person’s psychopathic and/or antisocial tendencies (Hare, 1993).
