ISSN: 2573-1734
The Scale of Evil – Interjudge Reliability and Associations with Predictor Variables
Authors:
Lindström E, Olausson M, Persson B, Tuninger E and Levander S*
Background: The concept of Evil has only rarely been the subject of empirical studies, which in turn requires a distinct definition of the concept, schemes for operationalization and development of measurement tools. The Scale of Evil (SoE) was constructed 1993 but has not yet been studied empirically. Aim: The main aim was to assess the reliability of the SoE. A second aim was to explore the correlation pattern between SoE and a range of other characteristics of perpetrators of crime. This might shed light on how Evil is construed in the minds of forensic professionals, and laymen. Method: 139 forensic psychiatric patients (stratified selection) were scored according to SoE by two independent raters. Psychopathy and HCR-15 (risk assessment) scores, as well as a data on a wide range of other individual characteristics were available for most of the subjects. Results: The interjudge reliability was very high with respect to rank order (tau=.94) as well as distribution of scores (almost identical). Among more than 100 individual characteristics, one variable displayed a particularly strong association with SoE scores: Lack of Compassion (tau=.49). As expected SoE correlated with PCL scores, but actually stronger with a diagnosis of Antisocial Personality Disorder, and item H1 (previous violence) and H8 (early behavioural problems) of the HCR-15. Significant associations were also obtained with many other variables, in line with expectations. Conclusions: SoE is a highly reliable scale. The pattern of associations with the other individual characteristics verifies the importance of psychopathic characteristics when scoring SoE, but SoE goes beyond being†another psychopathy scaleâ€. The Compassion variable, with its roots in criminological theory, appears to be a key to understand how raters construe Evil and rate SoE. The strong association qualifies as a construct validation of the SoE scale.
Keywords:
Evil; Scale of Evil; Criminality; Violence; Forensic; Psychopathy; Risk assessment