Cleckley's Sixteen Criteria
Definition
Hervey Cleckley's phenomenological description of the psychopathic personality (The Mask of Sanity, 1941, 5 editions through 1976), covering interpersonal charm, affective poverty, and behavioural irresponsibility. The clinical foundation for Hare's operationalisation.
- Author
- Hervey Cleckley
- Source work
- The Mask of Sanity (1941, 5 editions to 1976)
- Nature
- Phenomenological clinical description
- Legacy
- Basis for Hare's PCL-R
Common questions
How do Cleckley's criteria relate to the modern PCL-R used in court?+
Cleckley's sixteen criteria were a clinical, narrative description of traits like superficial charm and lack of remorse; Hare later operationalised these observations into the scored, structured interview and file-review items that make up the PCL-R, giving them a quantifiable, testable form usable in forensic assessment.
Why is Cleckley's original description still cited if the PCL-R superseded it clinically?+
Courts and scholars cite it as the conceptual foundation when explaining what a PCL-R score is meant to capture, particularly the affective and interpersonal traits that distinguish psychopathy from criminal behaviour alone.
Related terms
- Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD)
- DSM-5 / ICD-11 disorder defined primarily by behavioural history with conduct disorder before 15 as a prerequisite. Found in 50-80% of male...
- BSA 2023 § 39
- Section 39 of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam 2023, the provision governing expert opinion evidence in Indian courts. Replaced Indian Evidence Act 1872...
- Factor 1 (Interpersonal-Affective)
- The PCL-R facets covering charm, grandiosity, lying, manipulation, lack of remorse, shallow affect, and callousness. The affective core of the construct; most...
- Glenn-Raine Neuroimaging Findings
- Meta-analytic findings (NeuroImage 2011) of bilateral amygdala volume reduction, reduced vmPFC activity, and abnormal uncinate fasciculus integrity in high-PCL-R individuals, supporting a...
- PCL:SV and PCL:YV
- Derived instruments: the 12-item Screening Version (Hart, Cox and Hare 1995) for research/screening contexts; the Youth Version (Forth, Kosson and Hare 2003)...
- Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R)
- A 20-item semi-structured interview plus file-review instrument by Robert Hare, scored 0-40. Research threshold for psychopathy designation is 30 or above in...