Psychopathy and Conditional Release: A U.S. Perspective

This chapter looks at three specific populations that are frequently placed on some type of conditional release: defendants found guilty and placed on probation or paroled from prison; individuals adjudicated not guilty by reason of insanity (NGRI) and placed on conditional release in the community; and individuals convicted of sex offenses and committed under sexually violent predator laws for their respective states or the federal government in the U.S. It presents information on specific legal cases addressing aspects of conditional release and debates how the construct of psychopathy may or may not apply for each of these three different categories of conditional release, with a focus on psychopathy checklist‐revised. The chapter provides a theoretical discussion focusing on the relevancy or irrelevancy of psychopathy to conditional release and how to most appropriately communicate risk findings. It considers only a psychopathy score among a host of other factors for each type of conditional release.