Novel validity evidence of the Psychopathy Checklist- Revised (PCL-R) in a representative sample of Spanish inmates

•Assessing psychopathy with the PCL-R in non-convenience samples of inmates is needed.•PCL-R’s affective dimension is a more central measure of psychopathy.•PCL-R’s lifestyle dimension is a more central measure of psychopathy.•PCL-R’s Interpersonal dimension is a more central measure of psychopathy.•Antisocial PCL-R items are less central to the construct of psychopathy. Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) validation studies have been conducted mainly in non representative samples of North American adult male serious offenders. Research in other samples is needed to test the generalizability of PCL-R construct validity. PCL-R psychometric properties and construct validity were evaluated in a representative sample of 204 Spanish sentenced inmates. These inmates had served at least 6 months of their sentence at Pereiro de Aguiar prison. This sample was heterogeneous with respect to type of official charges and was representative, as all offenders who met the inclusion and exclusion criteria were invited to participate. Classical test theory indexes of reliability, correlations between PCL-R items, factors and facets, external correlations, and factor structure analysis demonstrated that PCL-R affective, interpersonal and lifestyle dimensions were more reliable and valid for the psychopathy than the antisocial construct in this Southern European sample.