Abstract
Background
Owing to criticisms of current concepts of personality disorders such as high comorbidity, criteria overlap and arbitrary thresholds of categorical diagnoses, a dimensional assessment is proposed that considers interrelations between different personality disorders. Results of previous factor analyses using dimensional personality disorder scores have indicated that one underlying dimension shows strong similarities to the concept of psychopathy and is similarly related to criminal recidivism.
Aim
The authors examined the underlying dimensions of ICDโ10 personality disorders, to analyse their association with criminal behaviour in general, and with specific criminal history variables.
Method
Study samples included 105 offenders and 80 nonโcriminal controls. Personality disorders were measured using a clinical structured interview (IPDE), measures of personality using selfโreport (NEOโFFI, IPC, HDHQ), and criminal history variables obtained from court records.
Results
Three underlying personality disorder factors could be identified, which showed identical structures in both the forensic and the nonโforensic sample. Factor 1 comprised emotionally unstable, histrionic, paranoid and dissocial traits and showed strong similarity to the construct of psychopathy. Factor 2 was defined by anankastic personality disorder scores and an inverse relation to schizoid personality features. Factor 3 showed high negative loadings of anxious and dependent personality disorders. Selfโreport measures of personality and criminal history variables yielded different associations with the three PD dimensions. Offenders with high scores on factor 1 were highly aggressive, violent and impulsive.
Conclusions
The findings generally replicated previous analyses using DSMโIII personality disorder scores. Differences can be explained by the different constructs of personality disorders included in ICDโ10. Although a diagnosis of psychopathy is not currently included in these diagnostic systems, the authors' findings indicate that a highly interโrelated pattern of personality disorder scores constitutes psychopathic personality disorder and can be used to identify impulsive, hostile and violent offenders. Copyright ยฉ 2004 Whurr Publishers Ltd.