Intelligence as a protective factor and risk factor for violence in a group of forensic psychiatric inpatients

Abstract

In the research literature intelligence is commonly described as a risk or protective factor for crime and violence, depending on its level. In mostly exploratory analysis presented in this study, authors primarily focused on determining how socioeconomic factors and comorbidity disorders influence relationship between intelligence level and violence of risk. In total, 101 patients participated in the study, all of them were male, Polish detainees at three psychiatric hospitals with forensic psychiatry wards: the S. Kryzan Hospital for the Nervously and Mentally Ill in Starogard Gdański, the State Hospital for Mental Diseases in Rybnik, and the Józef Babiński Psychiatric Hospital in Kraków. Statistical analysis of the collected data confirmed positive relationship between level of intelligence and historical risk factors summary of HCR20v3. It was observed that no source of income is an important moderator between low intelligence and historical risk factors. Additionally, in the group of patients with primary or middle education, intelligence level above average is a significant factor that minimalizes historical risk. Comorbidity disorder was identified as aspect that minimalizes protective influence of medium or high level of intelligence in the dynamic, clinical scale of HCR-20v3. Besides that, intelligence level above average was a protective factor in the group of schizophrenic patients without personality disorders. Knowledge of the way in which analyzed moderators influence relationship between intelligence level and risk of violence can improve the risk management process by enabling the identification of protective factors that are specific to subtypes of perpetrators of violence with mental disorders.