ABSTRACT
The purpose of assessing psychopathy varies with the nature of the setting and the referral question. Prior to sentencing, the psychologist is usually called upon to aid the trier of fact, the judge or jury, in answering a psycho-legal question, such as dangerousness or sanity. Subsequent to institutional commitment, referral questions stem from institutional concerns and may involve severity of antisocial personality disorder, malingering, treatment amenability or planning (Gacono, 1998; see Chapter 16), sanity, violence risk, threat management, sadism, sexual sadism, outpatient treatment, or classification (Gacono & Hutton, 1994) and other questions related to diagnosis, treatment, and risk management.
