Background. Violent criminal offenders with personality disorders (PD’s) can cause immense harm, but are often deemed untreatable. This study aimed to conduct a randomized clinical trial to test the effectiveness of long-term psychotherapy for rehabilitating offenders with PDs. Methods. We compared schema therapy (ST), an evidence-based psychotherapy for PDs, to treatment-as-usual (TAU) at eight high-security forensic hospitals in the Netherlands. Patients in both conditions received multiple treatment modalities and differed only in the individual, study-specific therapy they received. One-hundred-three male offenders with antisocial, narcissistic, borderline, or paranoid PDs, or Cluster B PD-not-otherwise specified, were assigned to 3 years of ST or TAU and assessed every 6 months. Primary outcomes were rehabilitation, involving gradual reintegration into the community, and PD symptoms. Results. Patients in both conditions showed moderate to large improvements in outcomes. ST was superior to TAU on both primary outcomes – rehabilitation (i.e. attaining supervised and unsupervised leave) and PD symptoms – and six of nine secondary outcomes, with small to moderate advantages over TAU. ST patients moved more rapidly through rehabilitation (supervised leave, treatment*time: F(5308) = 9.40, p < 0.001; unsupervised leave, treatment*- time: F(5472) = 3.45, p = 0.004), and showed faster improvements on PD scales (treatment*- time: t(1387) = −2.85, p = 0.005). Conclusions. These findings contradict pessimistic views on the treatability of violent offenders with PDs, and support the effectiveness of long-term psychotherapy for rehabilitating these patients, facilitating their re-entry into the community
The past two decades, a disproportionate growth of females entering the criminal justice system and forensic mental health services has been observed worldwide. However, there is a lack of knowledge on the background of women who are convicted for violent offenses. What is their criminal history, what are their motives for offending and in which way do they differ from men convicted for violent offenses? In this study, criminal histories and the offenses for which they were admitted to forensic care were analyzed of 218 women and 218 men who have been treated between 1984 and 2014 with a mandatory treatment order in one of four Dutch forensic psychiatric settings admitting both men and women. It is concluded that there are important differences in violent offending between male and female patients. Most importantly, female violence was more often directed towards their close environment, like their children, and driven by relational frustration. Furthermore, female patients received lower punishments compared to male patients and were more often considered to be diminished accountable for their offenses due to a mental illness.
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ENGLISH: A vast and growing body of research has shown that crime tends to run in families. However, previous studies focused only on traditional crimes and research on familial risk factors for cyber offending is very scarce. To address this gap in the literature, the present study examines the criminal behavior of the family members of a sample of cyber offenders prosecuted in the Netherlands. The sample consists of 979 cyber offenders prosecuted for computer trespassing between 2001 and 2018, and two matched groups of 979 traditional offenders and 979 non-offenders. Judicial information and kinship data from Dutch Statistics were used to measure criminal behavior among family members. Both traditional offenders and cyber offenders were found to be more likely to have criminal fathers, mothers, and siblings than non-offenders. Additional analyses, however, showed different patterns between cyber offenders who were only prosecuted for cyber offenses and those who also committed traditional crimes. While the former group of cyber offenders were similar to non-offenders in terms of family offending, the latter group of cyber offenders were more similar to traditional offenders. Overall, these results suggest that the traditional mechanisms of intergenerational transmission of crime can only partially explain cybercrime involvement. NEDERLANDS: Uit een groot en groeiend aantal onderzoeken blijkt dat criminaliteit vaak in families voorkomt. Eerdere studies richtten zich echter alleen op traditionele misdrijven en onderzoek naar familiaire risicofactoren voor cybercriminaliteit is zeer schaars. Om deze leemte in de literatuur op te vullen, onderzoekt deze studie het criminele gedrag van familieleden van een steekproef van cyberdelinquenten die in Nederland worden vervolgd. De steekproef bestaat uit 979 cyberdelinquenten die tussen 2001 en 2018 zijn vervolgd voor computervredebreuk, en twee gematchte groepen van 979 traditionele delinquenten en 979 niet-delinquenten. Justitiële informatie en verwantschapsgegevens van het Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek werden gebruikt om crimineel gedrag onder familieleden te meten. Zowel traditionele daders als cybercriminelen bleken vaker criminele vaders, moeders en broers en zussen te hebben dan niet-daders. Aanvullende analyses lieten echter verschillende patronen zien tussen cyberdelinquenten die alleen werden vervolgd voor cyberdelicten en degenen die ook traditionele delicten pleegden. Terwijl de eerste groep cyberdelinquenten vergelijkbaar was met niet-delinquenten wat betreft gezinsdelinquentie, leek de tweede groep cyberdelinquenten meer op traditionele delinquenten. In het algemeen suggereren deze resultaten dat de traditionele mechanismen van intergenerationele overdracht van criminaliteit de betrokkenheid bij cybercriminaliteit slechts gedeeltelijk kunnen verklaren.
