This article reviews instruments that mental health clinicians commonly use to assess psychological symptoms, personality traits, behavioral problems, and psycholegal issues relevant to the assessment and management of criminal offenders. The instruments reviewed encompass a variety of formats, including self-report inventories, clinician rating scales, and structured clinical interviews that assess the presence of mental disorders
The use of self-report measures to assess psychopathic personality or psychopathy (i.e., a constellation of personality traits and behaviors encompassing guiltlessness, superficial charm, grandiosity, callousness, poor impulse control, and manipulativeness) has been fraught with controversy. Until approximately the 1990s, the overwhelming majority of psychopathy research was conducted in forensic and clinical settings. Since the 1990s
Self-control (also commonly referred to as self-regulation) is the ability to control one’s thoughts, emotions, urges, and behaviors. A person might exert self-control, for example, by trying to stop thinking abou to what many people refer to as self-discipline, willpower, or self-change. Although self-control can be regarded as an act, the capability for it is