Personality disorders and violence among female prison inmates

Abstract

The current study seeks to expand our understanding of the increasingly well-documented relationship between mental disorder and violence, specifically by examining the relationship between Axis II disorders and community and institutional violence among a cohort of 261 incarcerated women. Drawing from an initial screening of 802 female inmates in maximum security, we sampled to identify 200 nonpsychotic women who met criteria for one of the four Cluster B personality disorders, and 50 nonpsychotic women who did not meet criteria for these disorders. Each inmate was interviewed with the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis II Personality Disorders (SCID-II). Information regarding instant offense and institutional behavior was obtained from prison files and a self-report inventory. The analyses indicated a high degree of comorbidity between the various Cluster B diagnoses and a significant association with various types of violent crime and nonviolent criminality. Significant relationships were found between Antisocial Personality Disorder and institutional violence, and Narcissistic Personality Disorder and incarceration for a violent crime. Cluster A diagnosis was unexpectedly found to be associated with both incarceration for a violent crime and incarceration for prostitution.