The relationship between mental illness and violence in a mentally disordered offender sample: evaluating criminogenic and psychopathological predictors

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, psychopathology tends to be unrelated to recidivism, although some researchers have noted that this relationship may be dependent upon certain moderating factors. In the present, prospective investigation, psychopathology is examined as predictors of recidivism in 121 provincially sentenced (i.e. less than 2 years) mentally disordered offenders. Results indicated that psychopathological predictors were generally poor predictors of recidivism in univariate and multivariate analyses. Consistent with our hypotheses, age of onset of criminal activity was a significant moderating factor on the relationship between mental illness and recidivism, although results were not in the expected direction for certain classes of mental illness. Results are discussed in the context of a social learning model of crime and in terms of the treatment of mentally disordered offenders.