Criminal Behavior and Borderline Personality: Correlations among Four Measures

Innov Clin Neurosci. 2016;13(7–8):15–16 Dear Editor: Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is over-represented in prison populations, with 25 to 50 percent of incarcerated individuals suffering from this disorder.[1] As an empirical illustration of this association, Sansone et al[2] reported correlations of 0.32 and 0.47 between 27 criminal behaviors and two measures of BPD. Given these evolving associations between criminal behavior and BPD, no study to date has compared the strength of these associations among more than two assessment measures for BPD in a less criminally inclined sample (e.g., psychiatric inpatients)—the focus of the current study. Potential participants comprised 167 men and women admitted to an inpatient psychiatric facility in the United States. Exclusion criteria were informally assessed by the recruiter (D.A.S.) and included intellectual, medical, psychiatric, or cognitive impairment of a severity to impair the individual’s ability to complete a survey. A total of 14 individuals were excluded from participation (3 with vision problems, 4 intellectually disabled/illiterate, 4 psychotic, 3 malingering). Of the candidates approached, 145 (95%) agreed to participate: 55 men and 89 women (one participant declined to report gender), with a mean age of 38.06 years (standard deviation [SD]=13.06). The majority self-identified as “White” (74%), with 16 percent “Black” and 10 percent of other ethnicities. The majority (87%) had at least complete...
Source: Innovations in Clinical Neuroscience - Category: Neuroscience Authors: Tags: Current Issue Letters to the Editor Personality Disorders Primary Care Psychiatry borderline personality disorder criminal behavior Source Type: research