Community violence to prison assault: A test of the behavioral continuity hypothesis

This large-scale study (N = 23,277) investigated the relationship between criminal history in the community and serious or assaultive prison misconduct, while controlling for the effects of inmate characteristics, general criminality, and custody level. Community violence variables included the rate of prior violent crime arrests and the types of prior violent crime, as well as a range of specific violent crimes of conviction. Behavioral continuity from community to prison was neither simple nor intuitively discernible, depending on the type, recency, and pattern of community criminality. Application of logistic regression models revealed that the omnibus measure of the rate of prior violent arrests was not related to either serious or assaultive prison misconduct. Prior arrests for assault and current convictions for robbery and/or assault, but not prior or current homicides, were associated with an increased risk for prison violence. Current conviction for a sexual assault had the strongest inverse relationship to prison violence, while prior arrests for sexual assault showed no relationship to prison violence. A more "nuanced" approach in assigning risk ratings based on prior criminal history and seriousness of offense is recommended. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

A comparison of rape and molest offenders in prison psychiatric treatment

Differences in offense history, brain functioning, and psychological functioning of rape (n = 45) and molest offenders (n = 15) who were receiving psychiatric treatment while in prison were evaluated. Significant differences were found in each of these domains. Rape offenders were more likely to have histories of high violence offenses other than sexual offense, including murder, serious juvenile offenses, and both juvenile and adult sexual offenses. Rape offenders were more likely to show lower intellectual functioning and diffuse brain dysfunction associated predominantly with temporal and prefrontal brain cortices. Rape offenders were also more likely to display psychological functioning associated with illogical thinking and disordered attachment but less immature self-focus and fewer feelings of alienation than demonstrated by molest offenders. Implications for treatment and social policy for sexual offenders are suggested. Logistic regression demonstrated that these neuropsychological measures resulted in 71.7% accurate prediction and Rorschach measures resulted in 79.2% accurate prediction in differentiating rape from molest offenders. Implications for theoretical understanding of sexual offending are discussed.     

Risk of harm: inmates who harm themselves while in prison psychiatric treatment

In this study, 242 randomly selected male offenders who were receiving psychiatric treatment in prison were administered psychological and neuropsychological evaluations and were followed during their treatment in a prison psychiatric hospital. Offenders who harmed themselves in treatment were compared to those who did not harm themselves. Eighteen percent of offenders harmed themselves, the severity of which required medical intervention. Young age, drug abuse, absence of Axis I mental disorder but presence of Axis II borderline personality disorder identified offenders who harmed themselves. Psychopathy checklist-revised (PCL-R) total rating > or = 30 and PCL-R Factor 2 (antisocial lifestyle) rating also identified offenders who harmed themselves. Additionally, offenders who harmed themselves also were 8.36 times more likely than their cohorts to harm treatment staff. Theoretical understanding of offenders who harm themselves, the importance of considering the environmental context in identifying risk factors for self-harm, and implications for treatment are suggested.     

Risk factors for recidivism among spousal assault and spousal homicide offenders

Abstract

The Spousal Assault Risk Assessment Guide (SARA; Kropp et al., 1995) is a 20-item checklist for the structured professional assessment of risk for partner violence. This study reported on a retrospective follow-up of file-based SARA assessments of offenders convicted 1988–1990 in Sweden. A total of 88 male batterers referred for court-ordered forensic psychiatric evaluations were included. During the 7-year follow-up, twenty-five (28%) were re-convicted of spousal assault. A few SARA items were statistically significantly associated with increased risk of recidivism, namely: Items #3, Past violation of conditional release or community supervision, #10 Personality disorder with anger, impulsivity, or behavioural instability (psychopathy), and #16 Extreme minimisation or denial of spousal assault history. The severity of the index crime (#18 Severe and/or sexual assault) was negatively related to risk for recidivism during follow-up. Offenders scoring above the median on the SARA were at more than 2.5 higher the risk for recidivism than those scoring below the median. In terms of predictive validity, the SARA actuarial score exhibited a marginal but statistically significant improvement over chance in this sample.     

Mental disorder in violent women in secure settings: Potential relevance to risk for future violence

The relevance to women of common violence risk factors identified in men has in many instances yet to be established. Consequently, there is a reluctance to accept without question the application to women of practices relating to violence risk assessment and management developed from research into men. This study examines mental disorder in women who are violent in order comment on its relevance to the practice of violence risk assessment and management. A sample of 95 violent women in high secure prison and forensic psychiatric care were assessed. Structured assessments of Axis I and II mental disorders and psychopathy were undertaken on all women and conviction histories were recorded. Very high levels of psychiatric morbidity were noted and patterns in comorbidity were detected. Among Axis I conditions, psychotic disorders and disorders of mood co-occurred at a very high rate. Among the Axis II conditions, dimensional ratings of borderline personality disorder (PD) correlated with dimensional ratings of avoidant, dependent and paranoid PDs while ratings of antisocial PD correlated with those of narcissistic, histrionic and obsessive–compulsive PDs. Women who had been incarcerated for a major violent offence were four times more likely to have a diagnosis of borderline PD than women whose index offence was one of minor violence. A number of the findings reported are in contrast to those reported in similar studies of men. Findings suggest that practitioners are right to question the application to women of knowledge derived from research into men. The practice of violence risk assessment and management with women should emphasise the development of individual risk formulations and responding to psychiatric comorbidity should be the rule rather than the exception with this population.     

Implicit attitudes toward violence and their relation to psychopathy,aggression, and socially adaptive behaviors in forensic psychiatric inpatients

In order to investigate the relation between implicit attitudes toward violence and different aspects of violent and social behavior in Dutch forensic psychiatric inpatients, an implicit association test was related to measures of psychopathy, aggression, and socially adaptive behaviors. Results indicated that all patients had negative implicit attitudes toward violence. Although implicit attitudes toward violence were unrelated to several self-report measures of aggression, there was a significant positive relation between these attitudes and the antisocial facet of psychopathy. Furthermore, it was found that implicit attitudes toward violence were significantly negatively associated with coping behaviors and the level of moral awareness, indicating that patients with more negative implicit attitudes toward violence more often reported these behaviors, which can be assumed to inhibit aggression. As the present study was only correlational in nature, our findings need to be further explored in prospective research.     

Factors Associated with Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Victimization

This study explored factors associated with a lifetime history of domestic violence and sexual assault in a sample of welfare recipients in Illinois. Results indicate that childhood exposure to domestic violence is a risk factor for both sexual assault and domestic violence victimization, but that childhood physical abuse is only a risk factor for domestic violence. Increased education and employment skills and having more children were also risk factors for domestic violence victimization. Domestic violence was significantly associated with depression, while sexual assault was associated with low social support and a greater perceived need for mental health services. Frequent alcohol and drug use were not associated with either type of victimization. Research implications are discussed.     

The relationship between aggressive behaviour in prison and violent offending following release

Aggression during incarceration impacts on parole release decisions. However, research examining the link between aggressive behaviour in custody and violence post-release is limited, particularly in relation to adult violent offenders. Several factors complicate the use of institutional aggression as a marker of risk for future violence, including environmental causes of aggressive behaviour and adaptation to prison. This study explored the association between aggressive behaviour in prison and violent recidivism post-release in a sample of 148 adult male violent offenders. Prisoners with three or more aggressive incidents recorded in prison incurred a violent charge more often and sooner after release than those with no aggressive incidents, when controlling for age, ethnicity, length of incarceration and risk for future violence. Subjects with one or two aggressive incidents were not at increased risk of violent recidivism. These findings suggest that institutional aggression can be used to identify individuals at risk of violence following release but only when repeated aggressive behaviour is evident. Importantly, some prisoners who were not aggressive in prison were charged with violent offences post-release and some prisoners with three or more aggressive incidents were not violent following release, highlighting the complexity of using in-prison aggression as a marker for violent recidivism.     

Stability of life-time psychiatric diagnoses among offenders in community and prison settings

The dearth of studies investigating diagnostic stability among offenders, and diagnostic stability being important from the patient’s mental health perspective, as well as from a public health, training and research standpoint, highlights the need to evaluate lifetime stability of ICD-10 psychiatric diagnoses for offenders in community and prison settings. A case-linkage design linked a two-year population-based cohort of male-sentenced prisoners with a state-wide psychiatric register (23,742 psychiatric consultations). Four measures of diagnostic stability were calculated for each setting as well as across settings, for all offenders who received at least two psychiatric diagnoses. Temporal consistency was moderate for schizophrenia spectrum disorders and low for affective, anxiety and personality disorders, and was higher in prison setting than community settings. Diagnostic instability highlights that the course of mental illness and clinical features among offenders may genuinely vary over time, across community and prison settings and may lead to complexities regarding psychiatric care for this population     

Factors associated with desistance from violence in prison: an exploratory study

Desistance from crime has been of increasing interest within criminal justice literature, but desistance from offending behaviour whilst in custodial environments has not yet been investigated. Violence within prison establishments continues to be a significant problem; therefore, this study investigated the factors that are associated with desistance from custodial violence in 63 UK Category C adult male prisoners with a record of violence in prison. Participants completed measures of eight social and subjective factors associated with desistance in community samples. Those who had desisted from prison violence for 12 months or more showed greater levels of pro-social attitudes, agency and resilience than those who persisted in violence. Agency independently predicted desistance and this was particularly the case for younger offenders. Internal shifts appeared to be supported by a positive work environment. It is concluded that in custody an internal shift in perspective is especially important for desistance, and that this can be supported by the social environment. Opportunities to intervene may be greater in younger prisoners. It is recommended that current initiatives in developing agency and positive social interaction, such as Psychologically Informed Planned Environments, are further developed.     

Treating high-risk rapists in a New Zealand intensive prison programme

The focus of this article is on the pilot development and implementation of a prison-based intensive treatment programme for high-risk adult-victim rape offenders in New Zealand. Advances in actuarial risk assessment enabled the identification of a group of high-risk adult sex offenders for whom no dedicated treatment programme existed. Based on a review of the treatment literature for rapists, a pilot programme was developed called the Adult Sex Offender Treatment Programme (ASOTP). The programme, based on the risk–need–responsivity and cognitive behavioural therapy principles, also used an adaptation of Young's schema therapy to address personality responsivity issues and specific idiosyncratic schema associated with participant offence pathways identified by the Massachusetts Treatment Centre classification (Version 3 for rapists). Measures of responsivity and dynamic risk administered in the ASOTP indicated some success in addressing treatment needs for the pilot participants (n=10). The programme has subsequently been expanded across prison specialist treatment unit sites and delivered to a further 52 participants. Although intermediate measures continue to indicate change in dynamic risk, recidivism outcome evaluations have not yet been possible, due to low numbers of paroled participants.     

Assessing change in dynamic risk factors in forensic psychiatric inpatients: relationship with psychopathy and recidivism

This study explored change in dynamic risk for violence using the Clinical and Risk Management subscales of the Historical Clinical and Risk Management-20 version 3 (HCR-20 v3) and sought to determine whether change was associated with violent recidivism. The association between the magnitude of change and psychopathy was also assessed. Participants were 40 male (n = 32) and female (n = 8) forensic psychiatric inpatients discharged from a secure forensic mental health service. Results showed that participants significantly improved on the HCR-20v3 Clinical subscale but significantly worsened on the Risk Management subscale. Psychopathy was unrelated to change in Clinical and Risk Management subscales. The hypothesis that changes in dynamic risk would predict recidivism over and above total pre-treatment risk (HCR-20v3 Total score) and psychopathy was not supported. These results suggest that improvements in mental state risk factors alone are insufficient with regard to lowering violence risk.     

Examining the Role of Static and Dynamic Risk Factors in the Prediction of Inpatient Violence: Variable- and Person-Focused Analyses

Although the construct of psychopathy is related to community violence and recidivism in various populations, empirical evidence suggests that its association with institutional aggression is weak at best. The current study examined, via both variable-level and group-level analyses, the relationship between standard violence risk instruments, which included a measure of psychopathy, and institutional violence. Additionally, the incremental validity of dynamic risk factors also was examined. The results suggest that PCL-R was only weakly related to institutional aggression and only then when the behavioral (Factor 2) aspects of the construct were examined. The clinical and risk management scales on the HCR-20, impulsivity, anger, and psychiatric symptoms all were useful in identifying patients at risk for exhibiting institutional aggression. These data suggest that factors other than psychopathy, including dynamic risk factors, may be most useful in identifying forensic patients at higher risk for exhibiting aggression.     

Factors in prison suicide: one year study in Texas.

The goal of the study was to examine psychopathology and stressors suffered by suicide victims, and to describe the characteristics of the suicides in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice between June of 1996 to June of 1997. Data on 25 completed suicides were collected from the records department. Results: The authors identified 60% of the suicide victims with a history of psychiatric disorders. Seventy-six percent had been diagnosed with psychiatric disorders while incarcerated. The most frequent psychiatric disorders were mood disorders (64%), psychotic disorders (44%), personality disorders (56%), and comorbidity with a history of presentencing alcohol and drug abuse was common. Most of the victims experienced chronic and/or acute stressors of acute trauma, disrupted relationship, sentence hearing, and/or medical condition. We concluded that important factors associated with increased risk of prison suicide include psychiatric disorders, comorbid substance abuse, a history of suicide attempt, and chronic and/or acute stressors.     

Aggressors against women in prison and in the community: an exploratory study of a differential profile

The current study compares the demographic and psychopathological characteristics of 54 men, who were in prison because of a serious offence of violence against women, and of 42 men, who belonged to a program of community treatment for violence against women in the home. There were no significant differences in demographic variables between the two samples. However, from a psychopathological point of view, psychiatric antecedents and current emotional instability were much more frequent and severe in aggressors within the community. Therefore, two possible differential profiles among the violent men are presented. Implications of these results for further research and clinical practice are commented on.     

Psychiatric disorders and management of sexual offenders in the prison psychiatric consultation unit of Marseille

Since 2017, complaints of sexual violence have increased in France. At the same time, the management of sexual offenders has been at the center of international public health policies. The prevalence of mental disorders among sexual offenders is an essential field of research. There are some published studies on the prevalence of psychiatric disorders in sexual offenders in detention, but there are few recent published studies among French individuals who were detained. Our objectives were to determine the prevalence of psychiatric disorders among persons detained for sexual offenses and the level of care received according to their diagnosis. For this purpose, we carried out a retrospective observational study from January 2017 to October 2021 of all adult sexual offenders, whether accused or convicted, who were seen in the psychiatric consultation unit of Les Baumettes prison, Marseille, France. The primary outcome measure was the psychiatric diagnosis entered in the medical records. One hundred forty-two patients were included in analysis. All patients were men, and the majority (n = 97, 68.3%) of these patients presented with at least one psychiatric disorder, principally a personality disorder (31.7%). 10.6% presented with a schizophrenic disorder, 4.9% a bipolar disorder, 3.5% a depressive disorder, 5.6% pedophilic paraphilia, and 25.4% an addictive disorder. Their management and comorbid addictions were analyzed in subgroups for each psychiatric disorder. Patients appeared to receive an appropriate level of care for their diagnosed disorder. It seems important to develop structured assessment of recidivism risk for better management of sexual offenders.     

Psychopathic traits and change on indicators of dynamic risk factors during inpatient forensic psychiatric treatment

The main objective of the present study was to investigate the impact of treatment on forensic psychiatric inpatients, examining changes on 22 indicators of five dynamic risk factors for violence (i.e., egocentrism, hostility, impulsivity, lack of insight, and negative distrustful attitudes), and to relate these potential changes to level of psychopathy assessed with the Hare Psychopathy Checklist - Revised (PCL-R). Also, we studied the relationship between psychopathy and treatment compliance, as indicated by the attendance rate of therapeutic activities. Eighty-seven male patients (due to missing data on at least one measure, sample size varies from 58 to 87; 42 patients have complete datasets) were administered a standardized psychological assessment battery (self-report inventories, performance-based personality test, observer ratings) upon admission (T1) and after on average 20 months of treatment (T2). Upon admission, psychopathy (median split, PCL-R score≥22) was significantly related to a higher score on five of the 22 indicators of dynamic risk. The analyses showed no significant differences between psychopathic and non-psychopathic patients on the indicators of dynamic risk factors during 20 months of inpatient forensic psychiatric treatment. However, psychopaths showed the expected pattern of treatment noncompliance, compared to non-psychopaths. The clinical and research implications of these findings are discussed.     

A study of the psychosexual characteristics of sex killers: can we identify them before it is too late?

Thirty-three sex killers were compared to 80 sexual aggressives, 23 sadists, and 611 general sex offenders on sexual history and preferences, substance abuse crime, violence, mental illness, personality, neurological and endocrine abnormalities. Compared to other groups, sex killers started their criminal careers earlier, more often had been to reform school, were members of criminal gangs, set fires, and were cruel to animals. They tended so show more sadism, fetishism, and voyeurism. They more often collected pornography, but they did not use it in their offenses. They more often abused drugs and some suffered from drug induced psychoses. Their most common diagnosis was antisocial personality disorder, but only 15.2% met criteria for psychopathy. Sex killers showed most signs of neuropsychological impairment, grades failure, and learning disabilities. Results suggest that greater emphasis be placed on studying adolescent sex offenders and conduct disordered children which may help identify potential sex killers.     

Sexual victimization against transgender women in prison: Consent and coercion in context

In this article, we conjoin two long‐standing lines of inquiry in criminology—the study of prison life and the study of sexual assault—by using original qualitative and quantitative data from 315 transgender women incarcerated in 27 California men's prisons. In so doing, we advance an analysis of the factors and processes that shape their experience of sexual victimization in prison. The results of qualitative analysis of 198 reported incidents of sexual victimization exhibit a range of types of sexual victimization experienced by transgender women in prison and reveal the centrality of relationships to their experiences of victimization. Findings from logistic regression models buttress the qualitative results, highlighting a factor that consistently and powerfully indicates vulnerability to sexual victimization is involvement in consensual sexual relationships with male prisoners. Together, the data demonstrate the prominence of intimate partner violence in prison, complicate the distinction between consent and unwanted sexual experiences in the lives of transgender women in prisons for men, and shine a light on the workings of gender in a total institution that privileges heteronormativity at the expense of the safety of transgender women in prisons for men. We discuss the implications of our findings in light of timely policy concerns.