Problems of Forensic Sciences 2015, vol. 102, 96–114 Predictors of aggressive criminality among sentenced women and men with PsychoPathic characteristics Marlena BANASIK 1 , Józef K. GIEROWSKI 2, 3 1 Department of Humanities, University of Physical Education, Kraków, Poland 2 Institute of Forensic Research, Kraków, Poland 3 University of Social Sciences and Humanities, SWPS Faculty in Katowice, Poland abstract Analysis of the recent international reports has proven that the traditional stereotype of male violent perpetrator is no longer valid. The purpose of this research was to investigate the problem of violent crime conditions in male and female offenders. Au- thors examined the role of psychopathic traits, empathy, psychological gender, aggressiveness and the risk of violence level in determining violent criminality. Two structural models were assessed. 100 incarcerated adult males and 100 incarcerated adult fe- males were examined. To state the level of psychopathy the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R; Hare, 2003) was used. To analyse the likelihood of an aggressive behaviour manifestation the Historical/Clinical/Risk Management Scale (HCR-20; Webster, Douglas, Eaves, Hart, 1997) was applied (with special supplement − FAM – for females). Aggressive tendencies were measured using the self-reporting Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire (Buss, Perry, 1992). Psychological gender of the incar- cerated individuals was evaluated with the Psychological Gender Inventory (Kuczyńska, 1992). To capture individual differenc- es in empathy the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (Davis, 1980) was used. Most relations between considered variables included in the theoretical model were confrmed in this study. Generally, there is probably no difference between men and women in conditions of aggressive criminality and instrumental violence. Key words Conditions of violence; Psychopathy; Gender differences; Risk factors for violence. Received 15 May 2015; accepted 22 June 2015 1. introduction 1.1 Introductory remarks The issue of conditions of violence is an object of unabated interest of researchers representing various felds of science. Both psychologists, criminologists, educationists, as well as other specialists being in contact with persons who violate the legal order are in agreement that we deal here with a very complex issue; therefore they avoid univariate explanations, similar to those proposed in previous centuries. At present, professional literature provides a relatively extensive knowledge on predictors and forms of vi- olence that are typical for men. Until today they have been a vast majority of prison population, as well as they are recognised by the society as almost sole of- fenders of violent acts. Yet, this opinion is more and more often verifed by reports from research con- cerning women who commit crimes, as well as social diagnosis reports conducted worldwide, naturally in- cluding Poland (see Cabalski, 2014). Starting with the nineties of the XX century, a signifcant growth of par- ticipation of women in criminal offending in Poland has been noticed (Siemaszko, Gruszczyńska, Mar czewski, 2009). A report on the structure of prisoners