The Hare Psychopathy Checklists-Revised refers to a test that uses twenty question to assess and identify whether the offender is psychopathic or not. The checklist has twenty question with each possessing a maximum of two pointscore (0, 1, 2), totalling up to forty points. An individual is assessed according the score he or she attained. This method has been increasingly used globally to by various judges and courts to test whether prisoners the extent of his or her mental illness before releasedor given a court judgement. The scores varies that an individual offender can obtain to be sentenced a death penalty varies from place to place. For example, a prisoner who scores twentyeight and above is given a death penalty while those who fall below it are punished according to their respective crimes they had done. For an individual to score twenty eight points out of the possible forty, it means his or her crime was brutal and there was substantial evidences which were beyond reasonable doubt.The answers from psychopathic offenders are compared to similar counterparts who are mentally well (Nyhol& Hare, 2008).
According to Nyol&Hare (2009), the offenders who were assessed using the Checklist were those who committed involuntary homicides such as manslaughter and have been giver an appeal permission. In most cases, psychopathic offenders are younger than the non-psychopath counterparts (Hare, 2003).this is the age in which psychopaths commit crimes. In such a case offenders are faced with different treatments as well as rehabilitations (Forth & Book, 2007). According to Hare (2003), Psychopaths frequently commit crimes troughinfluence of other external forces. Psychopaths can commit crimes even when they are in prisons. in this paper, am going to discuss a controversy involving tests and measurements, my point-of-view concerning this issue, ethical consideration and my stand concerning the issues of controversy in measurement using the Checklist.
There exist controversywithin the measurement of crimes using the three point rating scales. First the use of the system sometimes leads to poor judgements thus making wrong conclusions risking the life of an offender. The scale and application system was insighted by the professor of criminal law, Robert Hare and therefore many judges lack substantial information and understandings on the measurement scales. The paramount laws are therefore misapplied frequently in courts leading to abuse of law and dire consequences resulting from poor testing criteria. Responsible judges who use the checklist only base their arguments on the outcomes other than intensive investigations. Lack of modern and universal measurement systems also play a major role in giving of wrong decisions (Nyhol& Hare, 2008).
Secondly, most of the legal suits are based on the PCL-R scores resulting to summarization of the incidents compromising the legal procures. In other words, judges will be on frequent cross-roads whether to sentence apsychopathy death or not after the defendant scoring highly on the rating scale. Sometimes the decisions made by judges dismiss human legacy and hence the approach becomes ubiquitous and uncharacteristic in giving death sentences to psychopaths. There are constant cases of mistreatments which undermines the testing criteria. In addition to this, distrous actions may arise and some cases may be handled unprofessionally. Further, the rating and measuring criteria require professionals and hence training must be done frequently when changes arise. Suchtrainings are expensive and hence not applicable in some nations.
Thirdly, Politician’s influence the legislative systems compromising the decisions made using PCL-R assessment methodology. In some cases, different nations have poor prison therapy after the assessment have been done thus the severity nature of prisoners are not assessed efficiently leading to different ratings and death penalties. Baseness in applying this kind of measurements may result giving false judgements. For instance a person who could have been sentenced death due to his or her case is released to the public causing more havoc in the society.Forth & Book (2007), affirmed that there existed massiveallegations of biasness in the American court systems in earlier 1991. Black offenders were rated more than white offenders. BlackPsychopaths were frequently sentenced to death while white prisonerswho did similar crimes were released to the public. Thesebiasness may be existing in courts today causing discriminated offenders to be frequently hanged.
Fourthly, the existence of evaluator variability and scores which the judges and attorneysfound notbenefit able in judgement were disregarded. The assessments do not consider more evidences from other forensic crime assessments. Additional information from other source of investigations could have supplemented the death sentence done on a psychopath. However, this is not followed as individual judges use the score only to enact a death penalty on the prisoners. Further, the PCL-R criteria are oftenused outside the court systems where psychopaths are. This resulted to misuse of the PCL-R methodology. Various psychopathicmeasurements are misinterpreted by courts. In addition mental experts may have their data regularly misinterpreted by court judges and hence the Psychopaths are not allowed to defend themselves but only sentenced death. In some situations the use of Psychopathic-Checklist Revised may cause stigma on juvenile offenders who are mentally ill resulting to labelling problems.
Fifth, clinical practices in Psychopathic prisons may have negative values and thus the patients will be impacted to negative benefits. Further, the legal view may result to dictatorships in courts and hence wrong sentencing of crime culprits. Clinical irresponsibility’s will be dictated by politicians and other legal personalities. The scores are frequently entered by psychopathic trainee thereby resulting to erroneous and constant mistakes leading to poor judgments when imposing death penalties on crime culprits. The assessment methodology cannot be challenged to inmate an effective enforcement of an appeal and hence amore biased judgements.
Despite the above critique, PCL-R criteria apply clinical practices on psychopaths and boosting the measurement of criminals within criminal justice systems and facilitate fairness in justice systems. The criterion is applied globally and hence there exist uniform sentencing of death penalty across the world using similar criteria. Further, post therapy done in prisons after assessments. The measures are done by professional layers who are trained in it and hence inmates. Crimes are can be therefore investigated and assessed properly. Psychopathy assessments indicate the extent of risk to an individual crime and therefore if his or her appeal goes through, he or she will take a step further to inmate personal change and hence assimilated into the society.
The Psychopathic Assessments done through the revised checklists provides new way of identifying various disorders in prisons. Personality disorders are educated and counselled once identified through prison therapy. Further, the scores have been frequently lowered down to reduce death penalties. In addition, clinical officers assist prisoners to conquer some illness increasing self-esteem amongst prisoners. Counselling in prisons after the assessments will make the prisoners have sufficient legal understanding degrading unworthy sentences made against them. The durability and the nature of clinical practices construct a valid decision. The criteria will tap knowledge to legal authorities such as parole and tribunal boards. This implies that the legal personnel will understand the ways and assessment as well as scrutinizing criminals who psychopaths are resulting to reduced risks to the offenders.
The Psychopathy Checklist-Revised acts as a powerful tool to assess the nature and kinds of mistakes in cross –cultural and diversities. This provides a clear ways in which crimes can be predicted and assessed (Hare et al. 200). In addition, the checklists provide a powerful framework to understanding behaviours of criminals and recidivism hence providing a predictable measure to handle and enact sentences on the offenders. Further the criteria assist in provision of crystal clear platforms to assess traits of criminal culprits and unveil an appropriate decision making criteria. The scores imposed on the rating score can easily predict the behaviours and criminal nature of prisoners.
I personally belief that Psychopathy Checklist-Revised instrument acts as a reliable tool for measuring and predicting criminal behaviours and other homicides done by psychopaths. In a nutshell, the checklist should be declared a psychotherapeutic instrument which can accurately measure various involuntarily homicides. The scores used in measuring criminal impacts are ethical and less harmful when giving judgements in courts.
