Do some evaluators report consistently higher or lower PCL-R scores than others? Findings from a statewide sample of sexually violent predator evaluations.

This study examined whether some evaluators tend to report consistently higher or lower scores than other evaluators for offenders on the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R; R. D. Hare, 1991, 2003). Data for the study were PCL-R total scores for 321 sex offenders, evaluated by 1 or more of 20 different state-contracted evaluators, during a process of screening for civil commitment as sexually violent predators. More than 30% of the variability in PCL-R scores was attributable to differences among evaluators, with mean PCL-R scores given by 2 of the most prolific evaluators differing by almost 10 points. In a subsample of 22 offenders evaluated with the PCL-R on 2 or more occasions, evaluator agreement (intraclass correlation -sub(A,1) = .47) was low. Together, these findings raise concerns about the field reliability of the PCL-R and suggest the need for research examining field reliability of other measures used in forensic assessment.