A Link between Psychopathy Affect and Instrumentality in Homicide

This study tests the hypothesis that psychopathy is more associated with instrumental homicides than mixed and reactive homicides, and explores relationships between Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) facet/item scores and different forms of homicide: instrumental ( n = 130), mixed ( n = 103), and reactive ( n = 219) homicides. Instrumental homicides scored higher on facet 2 ( p < .01) but scored lower on facet 4 ( p < .1) compared to reactive homicides, whereas no facet scores differed between mixed and reactive homicides. Among the items of facet 2 (affective), remorselessness (item 6), and callousness (item 8) were predictive of instrumental homicide.