High-psychopathy men with a history of sexual offending have protective factors too: But are these risk relevant and can they change in treatment?

Abstract

Psychopathy is a serious personality disorder reputed for resistance to correctional and forensic mental health treatment and synonymous with being high risk for different recidivism outcomes; it is not readily associated with an abundance of positive qualities or protective factors. Research has yet to examine the presence of protective factors as a function of psychopathy in correctional samples and the risk-relevance of protective factors for high-psychopathy men. The present study examined the association of psychopathy and protective factors to recidivism in a Canadian sample of 461 men who attended sexual-offense-specific treatment and followed up nearly 10-year postrelease. The Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R; Hare, The Hare psychopathy-checklist-revised, 1991; Hare, Manual for the revised psychopathy checklist, 2003) and the Structured Assessment of Protective Factors (SAPROF; de Vogel et al., The International Journal of Forensic Mental Health, 2011, 10, 171) were rated from institutional files and recidivism data were obtained from official criminal records. PCL-R scores were inversely related to SAPROF scores; however, even men scoring high on the PCL-R made significant pre-post changes on protective factors. PCL-R and SAPROF scores predicted sexual, violent, and general recidivism; treatment-related changes in protective factors, controlling for PCL-R score, were significantly associated with decreased violent recidivism. Protective factors can and do change with purposive change agents (e.g., correctional treatment), even among individuals with substantial psychopathic traits. The role and risk relevance of protective factors in sexual violence risk assessment and management with high psychopathy clientele are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).