Cross-Cultural Fairness of the PCL: SV: A New Zealand Analysis

Dr Ryan Botha1, Mx Tara Nicholls1, Prof Devon Polaschek2

1Department Of Corrections, New Zealand, 2Department of Corrections, New Zealand, 3University of Waikato, New Zealand

Biography:

Dr Ryan Botha is a Neuropsychologist and Principal Adviser for Psychology Research at the Department of Corrections in New Zealand. Dr Botha worked as a Correctional Psychologist at Auckland South Correctional Facility (ASCF) before taking up a research based role within the Office of the Chief Psychologist in Wellington. His research interests include personality psychopathology, risk assessment, cross-cultural psychology, neuropsychology, and psychological treatment efficacy. Dr Botha’s primary research focus is one ensuring equity in clinical risk assessment practice within New Zealand and his work in this area has been published in several international journals.

Several studies have investigated the predictive validity of the Hare Psychopathy Checklists (PCL); however, the majority have used North American samples. The PCL can inform important decisions about people’s futures and therefore it is imperative to validate its psychometric properties within the jurisdictions it is used, particularly for Indigenous and non-European populations. In New Zealand, Botha and Polaschek (2023) concluded that the PCL: Screening Version (PCL:SV; Hart et al., 1999) demonstrated cross-ethnic predictive invariance using traditional discrimination statistics. The present study extends on this research by reporting on a novel statistic for assessing fairness in risk tool performance, cross-area under the curve (xAUC), as well as error rate balance and predictive parity of the PCL:SV for the prediction of any and violent 5-year recidivism outcomes in European and Māori subsamples (n = 288). In contrast to previous research, we found discrepancies, between European and Māori, on xAUC, error rate balance, and predictive parity.