The Relationship between Mental Disorder and Recidivism in Sexual Offenders

The importance of mental illness as a risk factor for violence has been debated with significant implications for mental health policy and clinical practice. In offender samples, mental health diagnoses tend to be unrelated to recidivism, although this effect has been questioned recently in sexual offenders. In the present, prospective investigation, the relevance of several mental health diagnoses and relevant co-morbidity is examined as predictors of various types of recidivism in two distinct samples of sexual offenders who were followed up to 27 years in the community. Results indicated that mental health diagnoses were not predictive of recidivism on their own or in multivariate categories, although comorbid substance-use disorders and some personality disorders showed some predictive validity. Results are discussed in the context of a social learning model of crime and in terms of the treatment of sexual offenders.