What's new in the literature?
By David Riley, Chief Adviser Psychological Services
Once it became possible to measure psychopathic traits in an offender, researchers were able to demonstrate that psychopaths usually had more extended criminal careers and were more predatory, more exploitative and more violent.
The stereotypical psychopath – that manipulative, deceitful, callous, and remorseless individual – began to be regarded by many practitioners as unsuitable for rehabilitation programmes.
This view received strong support in the early 1990s when an intensive therapeutic programme in a high security facility in Canada was evaluated. Not only did the outcome appear to show that the programme had very limited effects, but also that those individuals who displayed psychopathic traits were much more likely to re-offend than similar individuals who did not take part in the treatment.
At that time these results were interpreted as indicating that psychopaths were untreatable and, in fact, such efforts were likely to make the situation worse rather than better.
Notwithstanding the fact that the programme in question did not correspond to what we now know are the principles of effective correctional practice, the notion of the untreatable psychopath has persisted, and has had significant influences on the administrators, policy makers, parole boards, and others who make decisions in the criminal justice area.
More recent investigations, however, have begun to challenge this traditional notion. In a recent article, Mark Olver and Stephen Wong report on a 10-year follow-up of sexual offenders who were treated in a high security inpatient facility in Canada1.
While psychopaths were more likely to drop out of treatment than their non-psychopathic counterparts, and were more likely to go and commit violent offences, positive treatment changes in this group were associated with reductions in sexual and violent recidivism.
Given that this investigation used reasonably sophisticated analyses, and controlled for the initial level of risk exhibited by these offenders, it would appear that such approaches; structured, cognitive behavioural, and targeting criminogenic factors in the individual, do show real promise.
This most recent article is just one of several which indicates that the prevailing pessimism about treating this problematic group may be unjustified.
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ISSN 1178-8453