Behavioral Sciences and the Law Behav. Sci. Law 19: 53±80 (2001) Assessment of ``Juvenile Psychopathy'' and Its Association with Violence: A Critical Review John F. Edens, Ph.D.,* Jennifer L. Skeem, Ph.D., 1 Keith R. Cruise, Ph.D., 2 and Elizabeth Cauffman, Ph.D. 3 Interest in the construct of psychopathy as it applies to children and adolescents has become an area of consider- able research interest in the past 5±10 years, in part due to the clinical utility of psychopathy as a predictor of violence among adult offenders. Despite interest in ``juvenile psy- chopathy'' in general and its relationship to violence in particular, relatively few studies speci®cally have exam- ined whether operationalizations of this construct among children and adolescents predict various forms of aggres- sion. This article critically reviews this literature, as well as controversies regarding the assessment of adult psycho- pathic ``traits'' among juveniles. Existing evidence indi- cates a moderate association between measures of psychopathy and various forms of aggression, suggesting that this construct may be relevant for purposes of short- term risk appraisal and management among juveniles. However, due to the enormous developmental changes that occur during adolescence and the absence of long- itudinal research on the stability of this construct (and its association with violence), we conclude that reliance on psychopathy measures to make decisions regarding long- term placements for juveniles is contraindicated at this time. Copyright # 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. The association between psychopathy and violence has been well established over the past 20 years by an impressive body of outcome studies examining adult samples (for reviews, see Hare, 1991; Hemphill, Hare, & Wong, 1998; Salekin, Rogers, & Copyright # 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. *Correspondence to: John F. Edens, Department of Pyschology and Philosophy, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX 77341-2447, USA. E-mail: psy_jfe@shsu.edu 1 Jennifer L. Skeem, Ph.D., Law and Psychiatry Research Program, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, University of Pittsburgh. 2 Keith R. Cruise, Ph.D., Department of Psychology and Philosophy, Sam Houston State University. 3 Elizabeth Cauffman, Ph.D., Law and Psychiatry Research Program, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, University of Pittsburgh. Portions of this paper previously were presented as part of a symposium at the 2000 convention of the American Society of Criminology, San Francisco, CA.