Fantasy-Driven versus Contact-Driven Users of Child Sexual Exploitation Material: Offender Classification and Implications for Their Risk Assessment

Since the advent of the Internet, convictions for the possession, display, trading, and distribution of child sexual exploitation material (CSEM) have risen steadily, but little is known about their appropriate assessment and treatment, especially concerning their risk of reoffending. It has been suggested that a conceptual distinction of fantasy- versus contact-driven CSEM users might be of merit. 

Sixty-eight offenders recruited from sex offender treatment providers were assessed via an anonymous computer survey including a variety of clinical and risk-related variables; the findings showed differences in the psychological profiles between CSEM users and contact child sex offenders. Numerical and spatial methods of data analysis were used to identify subgroups of CSEM users; these confirmed the twofold distinction of fantasy- versus contact-driven offending. 

The spatial representation of participants identified three dimensions as crucial in the classification of these subgroups: direct sexual contact with a minor, possession of fantasy-generating material, and social contact with other users with a sexual interest in minors; potentially differentiating distinct offender subgroups with different risks and needs. 

The current study informed the development of an empirical model of CSEM users that could aid in the assessment of risk of reoffending and cross-over to contact sex offending.

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By:  Merdian HL1, Moghaddam N2, Boer DP3, Wilson N4, Thakker J3, Curtis C3, Dawson D2.

• 1University of Lincoln, UK hmerdian@lincoln.ac.uk.
• 2University of Lincoln, UK.
• 3The University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand.
• 4Department of Corrections, Hamilton, New Zealand. 
• Sex Abuse. 2016 Apr 6. pii: 1079063216641109.

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Risk Assessments & Recidivism among a Population-Based Group of Swedish Offenders Sentenced to Life in Prison

BACKGROUND:

In Sweden, the number of people serving life sentences has steadily increased. To date, few studies have examined the recidivism rate or the predictive validity of different risk assessment instruments in this group.

AIMS:

Our aim was to test the predictive validity among inmates serving life sentences of two different instruments used for assessing risk-the Historical, Clinical and Risk Management-20 (HCR-20), most widely used in clinical populations, and the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R), commonly applied in both penal and clinical settings.

METHOD:

Ninety-eight life-sentenced prisoners were included, 26 of whom were released during the study period. Data on risk assessments and dates for release were collected from administrative records, while recidivism data were retrieved from a national database on criminal convictions.

RESULTS:

Sex offenders obtained the highest scores and inmates charged with domestic violent offences obtained the lowest scores on both instruments. The released prisoners were followed for a mean period of 33 months. During this time five prisoners (19%) reoffended, four of them violently, with an average time to recidivism of 10 months. Only PCL-R Facet 4, which reflects antisocial features, was significantly associated with recidivism.

CONCLUSIONS:

This small, but population-based, study demonstrates that antisocial behaviour shows incremental predictive validity for reoffending among life-sentenced offenders, but other measures have little to add for this specific task. The fact that those life sentenced prisoners who reoffended did so so soon after release should prompt allocation of earlier interventions towards preventing this.

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By:  Sturup J1, Karlberg D2, Fredriksson B3, Lihoff T3, Kristiansson M2.

• 1National Board of Forensic Medicine, Karolinska Institutet and Stockholm University, Sweden.
• 2National Board of Forensic Medicine and Karolinska Institutet, Sweden.
• 3National Board of Forensic Medicine, Sweden. 
• Crim Behav Ment Health. 2016 Apr;26(2):124-35. doi: 10.1002/cbm.1941. Epub 2015 Jan 30.

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Forgive and Forget, or Forgive and Regret? Whether Forgiveness Leads to Less or More Offending Depends on Offender Agreeableness

How does forgiveness predict the likelihood of reoffending? One survey study, one experiment, one 4-year longitudinal study, and one 2-week diary study examined the implications of forgiveness for reoffending in relationships. 

In all four studies, agreeableness interacted with partner forgiveness to predict subsequent offending; partner forgiveness was negatively associated with subsequent offending among more agreeable people but positively associated with subsequent offending among less agreeable people. 

Furthermore, Study 4 demonstrated a unique mechanism of each simple effect; relatively agreeable people engaged in fewer transgressions against more forgiving partners because they felt obligated to refrain from transgressing against such partners whereas relatively disagreeable people engaged in more transgressions against more forgiving partners because they perceived those partners were less easily angered. 

These studies indicate that completely understanding the intrapersonal and interpersonal consequences of forgiveness requires recognizing the dyadic nature of forgiveness and attending to qualities of the offender.

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By:  McNulty JK1, Russell VM2.

• 1Florida State University, Tallahassee, USA mcnulty@psy.fsu.edu.
• 2North Carolina State University, Raleigh, USA. 
• Pers Soc Psychol Bull. 2016 Mar 30. pii: 0146167216637841.

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Verbal Ability and Persistent Offending: A Race-Specific Test of Moffitt's Theory

Theoretical questions linger over the applicability of the verbal ability model to African Americans and the social control theory hypothesis that educational failure mediates the effect of verbal ability on offending patterns. 

Accordingly, this paper investigates whether verbal ability distinguishes between offending groups within the context of Moffitt's developmental taxonomy. Questions are addressed with longitudinal data spanning childhood through young-adulthood from an ongoing national panel, and multinomial and hierarchical Poisson models (over-dispersed). 

In multinomial models, low verbal ability predicts membership in a life-course-persistent-oriented group relative to an adolescent-limited-oriented group. Hierarchical models indicate that verbal ability is associated with arrest outcomes among White and African American subjects, with effects consistently operating through educational attainment (high school dropout). 

The results support Moffitt's hypothesis that verbal deficits distinguish adolescent-limited- and life-course-persistent-oriented groups within race as well as the social control model of verbal ability.

[More on Moffitt's Theory:  https://goo.gl/yRsukX]

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By:  Bellair PE1, McNulty TL2, Piquero AR3.

• 1Paul Bellair (Ph.D., University at Albany, State University of New York) is a Professor in the Department of Sociology at The Ohio State University. His current research tests theoretical explanations for race differences in violence and recidivism, tests theory pertaining to the effect of verbal ability on delinquency, and examines the social networks and employment experiences of prisoners.
• 2Thomas McNulty is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Georgia. His specialty areas include criminology, urban sociology, and research methods. His most recent work focuses on developing and testing multilevel theoretical models of racial and ethnic differences in crime/violence, with emphasis on the role of individual differences within the context of family, school, and neighborhood environments.
• 3Alex Piquero is Ashbel Smith Professor of Criminology at the University of Texas at Dallas, Adjunct Professor Key Centre for Ethics, Law, Justice, and Governance, Griffith University Australia, Faculty Affiliate, Center for Violence and Injury Prevention George Warren Brown School of Social Work Washington University in St. Louis, and Co-Editor, Journal of Quantitative Criminology. His research interests include criminal careers, criminological theory, and quantitative research methods. He has received several research, teaching, and mentoring awards and is Fellow of both the American Society of Criminology and the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences. 
• Justice Q. 2016;33(3):455-480. Epub 2014 May 21.

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Does the Self-Report Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits Predict Recidivism?

Callous-unemotional (CU) traits, that is, a lack of guilt or empathy and poverty of emotion, are believed to be the developmental precursor to psychopathy in adulthood, capturing its emotional detachment dimension. 

Similar to psychopathic adults, research shows that children and adolescents with high CU traits represent an important population at heightened risk for criminal behavior. The present study is the first to examine whether a self-report measure of CU traits, the Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits (ICU), predicts general and violent recidivism postinstitutional release among a sample of 227 juvenile justice-involved adolescent boys (M age = 15.73, SD = 1.27). 

Results indicated that boys high on CU traits were faster to reoffend postrelease both nonviolently (Hazard Ratio [HR] = 1.27, p < .01) and violently (HR = 1.54, p < .05). Further, the Uncaring subscale of the ICU predicted faster time to general recidivism (HR = 1.21, p < .05), whereas the Callousness subscale (i.e., "I do not care who I hurt to get what I want") predicted faster time to violent recidivism (HR = 1.39, p < .05). The present study provides preliminary support for the predictive validity of a brief, yet comprehensive self-report measure of CU traits. 

Findings inform youth risk assessment by offering possibilities within the domain of self-report for screening high-risk youth in need of intensive, comprehensive, and individualized intervention

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By:  Kimonis ER, Kennealy PJ, Goulter N.

Psychol Assess. 2016 Feb 4. 

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Patient Outcomes Following Discharge from Secure Psychiatric Hospitals: Systematic Review & Meta-Analysis

Background

Secure hospitals are a high-cost, low-volume service consuming around a fifth of the overall mental health budget in England and Wales.

Aims

A systematic review and meta-analysis of adverse outcomes after discharge along with a comparison with rates in other clinical and forensic groups in order to inform public health and policy.

Method

We searched for primary studies that followed patients discharged from a secure hospital, and reported mortality, readmissions or reconvictions. We determined crude rates for all adverse outcomes.

Results

In total, 35 studies from 10 countries were included, involving 12 056 patients out of which 53% were violent offenders. The crude death rate for all-cause mortality was 1538 per 100 000 person-years (95% CI 1175–1901). For suicide, the crude death rate was 325 per 100 000 person-years (95% CI 235–415). The readmission rate was 7208 per 100 000 person-years (95% CI 5916–8500). Crude reoffending rates were 4484 per 100 000 person-years (95% CI 3679–5287), with lower rates in more recent studies.

Conclusions

There is some evidence that patients discharged from forensic psychiatric services have lower offending outcomes than many comparative groups. Services could consider improving interventions aimed at reducing premature mortality, particularly suicide, in discharged patients.

Below:  Crude mortality rates of discharged forensic psychiatry patients for all-cause mortality in England and Wales compared with other countries.  Rates are per 100 000 person-years. Weights are from random-effects analysis.

Below:  Psychiatric hospital readmission rates for discharged forensic psychiatric patients per 100 000 person-years

Below:  Repeat offending rates for discharged forensic patients per 100 000 person-years. Weights are from random-effects analysis. The two outliers (combined no. reoffenders = 6) are not shown.

Below:  Repeat violent offending rates for discharged forensic patients per 100 000 person-years

Below:  Prevalence ratios comparing reoffending rates of released prisoners with forensic psychiatric patients

By:  Seena Fazel, Zuzanna Fimińska, Christopher Cocks, and Jeremy Coid

Seena Fazel, MD, Zuzanna Fimińska, MSc, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK; Christopher Cocks, MD, Department of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; Jeremy Coid, MD, Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine, Queen Mary University London, London, UK

Correspondence: Seena Fazel, Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Warneford Hospital, Oxford OX3 7JX. UK. Email:ku.ca.xo.hcysp@lezaf.anees

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Psychopathy in Women: Prediction of Criminality & Violence in UK & USA Psychiatric Patients Resident in the Community

Highlights

• The relationship between psychopathy and subsequent violence and criminality was examined
• Data from two large (each >1000 patients) samples across two countries was examined
• Data from women and men were compared
• The PCL:SV was predictive of violence and criminality and violence in both samples for all time frames considered
• No gender differences were found despite good power.
• Results suggest psychopathy is an important predictor of future problem behaviours for both men and women.

Psychopathy is an important clinical construct often used in the assessment and management of psychiatric patients and offenders. This, in part, is due to the strong association between psychopathy, crime, and particularly violent crime. However, there are few studies of these associations in women. These relationships were examined using information from two large databases. 

The Partnerships in Care database contains data from a sample of forensic psychiatric patients (154 women and 777 men) in the UK that were discharged from secure psychiatric units. Follow-up was via official conviction data within the next 2 years. The MacArthur study examined violence and aggression in a sample of civil psychiatric patients (367 women and 496 men) in the USA following discharge from an acute psychiatric hospital. Follow-up was via a mixture of self-report, informant report and official records. Psychopathy in both samples was measured via the PCL:SV prior to discharge. Psychopathy was a good predictor of target events for the women in both samples and for all time intervals used. No significant gender differences in the PCL:SV’s predictive efficacy were found. 

The results provide a strong evidence-base for the use of psychopathy in women when considering future community behaviour and reoffending.

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By:  

Nicola S. Gray^a, b, 

Robert J. Snowden^c

School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF10 3AT

snowden@cardiff.ac.uk

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