Personality disorder and offending behaviour: findings from the national survey of male prisoners in England and Wales

Abstract

Previous studies have related mental disorder and antisocial personality disorder to criminal behaviour, but little is known about the associations with other personality disorders. The aim of this study was to examine independent associations between offending behaviour over the lifetime and personality disorder in a representative sample of male offenders. A two-stage survey was carried out among prisoners in all prisons in England and Wales. DSM-IV personality disorder was measured using SCID-II in the second stage among 391 male prisoners. Independent relationships between personality disorder scores and lifetime offences were examined using multiple regression. Findings demonstrated several independent relationships between personality disorders and offending behaviour. Strongest associations were found between the conduct disorder and adult antisocial components of antisocial personality disorder, with no evidence that these were the consequence of the other Axis II disorders. Future research should investigate the functional links between personality disorder and offending behaviour.

Keywords:

• personality disorder
• offending behaviour
• prisoners
• criminality
• gender

Acknowledgements

The survey was carried out by the Office for National Statistics in 1997.