Quality of life of violent and sexual offenders in community-based forensic psychiatric treatment

Abstract

Subjective well-being is a common outcome measure in the evaluation of treatment in general psychiatry, but not yet in forensic psychiatry. The impact of quality of life, defined in terms of objective indicators and subjective well-being, on criminal recidivism is unknown. Several criminological theories, such as Ward's good lives model, point at a possible relationship. In a study of male forensic psychiatric outpatients suffering from personality disorders, the quality of life of sexual and violent offenders was compared, using the Dutch version of the Lancashire Quality of Life Profile. The results indicated that although sexual offenders and violent offenders hardly differed on objective indicators of quality of life, their judgments of their subjective well-being differed significantly. Sexual offenders were more satisfied in general and in particular with their family relationships, safety, and health. For both groups, different objective and subjective indicators correlated with global well-being. Assessment of domain-specific objective and subjective issues and global well-being, at the beginning of treatment, may improve the effectiveness of treatment and the quality of life of the forensic patient.

Cognitive impairment, self‐perceived health and quality of life of older prisoners

“…Our results also show that the perceived health and quality of life of older male prisoners were significantly worse than those of the comparison men on all the sub‐scales of the Nottingham Health Profile and the WHOQOL. This is in line with other studies comparing prisoners with the general population (Chung et al, ; Blanc et al, ; Bouman et al, ; Cavallo et al, ). It is important to take prisoners' subjective evaluation into account, as the perception of poor health could be a major symptom of marginalisation in prison (Fraser et al, ).…”

Mental disorders, perceived health and quality of life of older prisoners in France

“…Our results also show that the perceived health and quality of life of older male prisoners were significantly worse than those of the comparison men on all the sub-scales of the Nottingham Health Profile and the WHOQOL. This is in line with other studies comparing prisoners with the general population (Chung et al, 1998;Blanc et al, 2001;Bouman et al, 2008;Cavallo et al, 2014). It is important to take prisonersˈ subjective evaluation into account, as the perception of poor health could be a major symptom of marginalisation in prison (Fraser et al, 2009).…”

Psychometric properties of the forensic inpatient quality of life questionnaire: quality of life assessment for long-term forensic psychiatric care

“…Consistent with a study by Bouman, de Ruiter, and Schene ( 2008 ), no relation was found between social relations and overall QoL. This might suggest that forensic patients differ from other populations regarding this aspect.…”