THE PREDICTION OF CRIMINAL AND VIOLENT RECIDIVISM AMONG MENTALLY DISORDERED OFFENDERS - A METAANALYSIS

A meta-analysis was conducted to examine whether the predictors of rec idivism for mentally disordered offenders are different from the predi ctors for nondisordered offenders. Effect sizes were calculated for 35 predictors of general recidivism and 27 predictors of violent recidiv ism drawn from 64 unique samples. The results showed that the major pr edictors of recidivism were the same for mentally disordered offenders as for nondisordered offenders. Criminal history variables were the b est predictors, and clinical variables showed the smallest effect size s. The findings suggest that the. risk assessment of mentally disorder ed offenders can be enhanced with more attention to the social psychol ogical criminological literature and less reliance on models of psycho pathology.