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The prevalence of mental disorders in incarcerated contact sexual offenders
Author(s) -
Eher R.,
Rettenberger M.,
Turner D.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
acta psychiatrica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.849
H-Index - 146
eISSN - 1600-0447
pISSN - 0001-690X
DOI - 10.1111/acps.13024
Subject(s) - personality disorders , psychiatry , psychological intervention , psychology , clinical psychology , prevalence of mental disorders , mental illness , antisocial personality disorder , personality , poison control , mental health , medicine , injury prevention , medical emergency , social psychology
Objective Mental disorders in sexual offenders are relevant in terms of risk assessment and psychotherapeutic and pharmacological treatment. Methods The present cross‐sectional study was conducted between 2001 and 2017 and included 1511 sexual offenders who were assessed at the Federal Evaluation Center for Sexual and Violent Offenders in the Austrian Prison System. All sexual offenders were assessed with the Structured Clinical Interview for Axis I (SCID I) and Axis II disorders (SCID II). Results N = 1250 (92.9%) sexual offenders were diagnosed with a mental disorder, whereby the great majority received multiple diagnoses. The most frequently found disorders were alcohol misuse (40.0%), paraphilic (43.3%), and personality disorders (53.6%) with a special emphasis on Cluster B personality disorders (47.8%). While sexual offenders against children were more likely to be diagnosed with paraphilic disorders, sexual offenders against adults were more likely to be diagnosed with a personality disorder. Conclusion Prevalence rates of mental disorders in sexual offenders are considerable. Besides specific risk reducing treatment, the psychological and social sequelae of the mental disorder have to be addressed in interventions in order to reach an effective and sustainable risk reduction.