The Effectiveness of Violence Reduction Treatment for Psychopathic Offenders: Empirical Evidence and a Treatment Model

Abstract

Psychopathy, a personality disorder, is characterized by dysfunctional and externalizing affective and interpersonal traits that can be manifested as violent and antisocial behaviors. Psychopathic individuals are often referred for treatment in criminal justice or forensic mental health settings to reduce the harm they may inflict on themselves and others. While the 'what works' treatment approaches to reduce recidivism and violence have enjoyed widespread support, therapeutic nihilism for psychopathy abounds. A two-component model is proposed to provide a conceptual framework for the treatment of psychopathy. Three studies on the treatment of psychopathic offenders to reduce violence and offending behaviors are reviewed and show positive treatment outcomes. The study results support the efficacy for the treatment of psychopathic individuals and for the proposed model.

Violent Offenders’ Within-Treatment Change in Anger, Criminal Attitudes, and Violence Risk: Associations with Violent Recidivism

“…Drawing upon the limited extant literature, it appears that treatment changes, providing they are risk-relevant, can predict meaningful reductions in recidivism, regardless of the methods employed to measure within-treatment change (Wong, Gordon, Gu, Lewis, & Olver, 2012). However, there is a lack of reliable and consistent findings linking within-treatment change with decreased recidivism among violent offenders.…”

“…Violent offenses were defined as offenses against the person, such as homicide, (sexual) assault, robbery, and kidnapping (Australian Institute of Criminology, 2012; Wong et al, 2012). Accordingly, violent recidivism was defined as any charge for a new violent offense, as defined above, following release from prison (violent recidivism was binary coded as Yes D 1, No D 0).…”

A meta‐analytic review of the efficacy of psychological treatments for violent offenders in correctional and forensic mental health settings.

“…That is, Wong et al. () examined treatment effectiveness for violent male patients with psychopathy, a population where treatment is known to be less effective than for violent offenders generally (Barbaree, ; Hemphill & Hart, ; Salekin, Worley, & Grimes, ). Further, the extended follow‐up period used in this study—that is, 88 months, denoting the longest follow‐up period examined by a period of 39 months—is also likely to have contributed to the null effects.…”

A cluster analytic examination and external validation of psychopathic offender subtypes in a multisite sample of Canadian federal offenders.

“…Wong, Gordon, Gu, Lewis, and Olver (2012; see also Wong & Hare, 2005) outline a treatment model for psychopathy in which Factor 1, the interper sonal and affective features of the syndrome, represents a responsivity issue that service providers must manage in order to retain clients in treatment. The second component of the model involves targeting criminogenic needs for treatment, which correlate highly with Factor 2, are associated with recidivism reduction if effec tively managed, and tend to have stronger links to violence than Factor 1.…”