Predicting future violence among individuals with psychopathy

2013/09/27 by Jeremy Coid, Simone Ullrich, Constantinos Kallis · 2 citations
Psychology · Social Sciences · #Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis #Psychopathy, Forensic Psychiatry, Sexual Offending #Stalking, Cyberstalking, and Harassment

paper · pdf · doi:10.1192/bjp.bp.112.118471

openalex publication_date 2013/09/27 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04

Abstract

Structured risk assessment aims to help clinicians classify offenders according to likelihood of future violent and criminal behaviour. We investigated how confident clinicians can be using three commonly used instruments (HCR-20, VRAG, OGRS-II) in individuals with different diagnoses. Moderate to good predictive accuracy for future violence was achieved for released prisoners with no mental disorder, low to moderate for clinical syndromes and personality disorder, but accuracy was no better than chance for individuals with psychopathy. Comprehensive diagnostic assessment should precede an assessment of risk. Risk assessment instruments cannot be relied upon when managing public risk from individuals with psychopathy.

Citations

• Gender differences in structured risk assessment: Comparing the accuracy of five instruments.

Cited by

• Predicting violent offences by released prisoners
• Jeremy Coid [wikipedia]

Related

• Predicting violent offences by released prisoners
• The Predictive Validity of Risk Assessment with Violent Young Offenders
• Gender differences in structured risk assessment: Comparing the accuracy of five instruments.
• Authors' reply
• Do risk assessment tools help manage and reduce risk of violence and reoffending? A systematic review.