Factor structure, psychometric properties, and proposal for a brief-form version of the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale: Validation in a court-referred partner-violent men sample

Abstract

Psychopathy has been widely studied among criminal populations. Most analyses address it in institutionalized populations, however, the present study examines the psychometric properties of the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale (LSRP) in 642 court-referred partner-violent men serving suspended prison sentences. The confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the two-factor structure (primary and secondary psychopathy) of the original scale. The resulting scale was a brief-form version of the LSRP that presents satisfactory data in terms of internal consistency and criterion validity, and significant positive correlations with measures of intimate partner violence (IPV), antisocial personality traits and impulsivity. In terms of known-groups validity, meanwhile, psychopathy was found to decrease with the age of the participants. In this light, the LSRP brief-form offers adequate psychometric reliability as an instrument to measure primary and secondary psychopathy in partner-violent men serving suspended sentences