Psychopathy and violent recidivism

The violent recidivism rates of 169 adult male mentally disordered offenders released from a maximum security psychiatric hospital were compared over an average 10-year follow-up period. Forty percent of the total and 77% of the psychopaths (as defined by the Psychopathy Checklist) committed a violent offense. It was possible to predict outcome with considerable accuracy using combinations of childhood history, adult history, index offense, and institutional or program variables. However, the Psychopathy Checklist alone performed at least as well as any combination of variables and also improved upon the prediction based on criminal history variables. Psychopaths continued to recidivate at a higher rate than nonpsychopaths even beyond age 40.This research was supported by the Ontario Mental Health Foundation under grant No. 952-86-88. Thanks are due to R. Hare and V. Quinsey for comments on earlier versions of this paper and to V. Bell, C. Lang, L. Koshkerian, S. Robinson, and C. MacKnight for collecting the data.