Biopsychosocial Assessment Approach for Offenders with Intellectual Disabilities

This chapter explores various assessment strategies via a biopsychosocial approach for individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID) who have also been labelled as offenders. Employing a systematic and comprehensive assessment approach to address the maladaptive problems experienced by offenders who have ID is necessary in developing the effective treatment strategies. As one element of a complete bio‐psycho‐social assessment, the biomedical lens offers psychiatric diagnoses and can identify targets for pharmacological intervention. Offenders with ID often present significant diagnostic challenges. The chapter discusses common psychiatric diagnoses and offers suggestions for assessment of these conditions in offenders with ID. It demonstrates how psychological and emotional factors can be assessed as a means to formulate a treatment plan. In order to establish a psychiatric diagnosis that meets the criterion for paedophilia, a comprehensive evaluation is needed to determine the biomedical, psychological, and socio‐ environmental influences.