The Assessment of Psychopathic Traits in Perpertrators with Schizophrenia and Psychopathy as Comorbidity

This paper discusses the assessment of psychopatic traits in perpetrators with schizofrenia in the light of common assumption that perpetrators with schizofrenia are not homogenic group but rather heterogenic group whose future risk does not rest exclusively on the psychopathology of the underlying disease. Our sample consists of 150 perperators with schizofrenia who commited a criminal act and were subjects of forensic evaluation in the University Hospital of Psychiatry Vrapče, Center for Forensic Psychiatry throughout a period of 11 years. All data were extracted from written evaluations. In our research, the assessment of psychopatic trait was performed by PCL-R (Psychopathy Checklist- Revised) - the assessment tool rarely used in Croatia. Data were analysed by methods of descriptive statistics and multivariant discriminatory analysis. Our results show that some of psychopatic traits exist in all of our evaluees, but with markedly different intensity. The average PCL-R score was 19.92 (SD=8.30), and by defining the cut off at 26, our subjects were divided into two groups: subjects with a higher level of psychopathy trait (High-P) and those with a lower level of psychopathy trait (Low-P). These two groups showed significant differences in all of the items. The confirmation of our hypothesis opens new areas for discussion and future research: problem of comorbidites in patients with schizofrenia in a forensic setting and a rationale for the routine usage of PCL-R in forensic evaluations.