Sensational interests and sensation seeking in mentally disordered offenders

Violent and sensational interests are reported in the background history of some mentally disordered offenders. As sensation-seeking accounts for the drive for intellectual and physical excitement, it was thought that this tr ait would also underlie an interest in sensational material, We examined th e differences in sensational interests and SS between patients detained und er the Mental Health Act (1983) classifications of psychopathic disorder (P D) and mental illness (MI), the degree to which sensational interests relat ed to sensation-seeking, and the relationship between these factors and sel f-reported personality disorders. The Sensational Interests Questionnaire ( SIQ), Zuckerman's Sensation-Seeking Scale (SSS), the Standard Progressive M atrices (SPM) and the MCMI-II were given to 42 patients (32 MI, 10 PD). The re were no significant differences between the MI and PD groups for scores on the SIQ or the SSS. The SIQ was not related to scores on the SPM. As pre dicted, the SIQ's subscales of militarism and the violent-occult were signi ficantly and positively associated with sensation-seeking, especially the S SS subscales of Disinhibition and Thrill and Adventure Seeking. Sensation-s eeking mediated the relationship between sensational interests and measures of personality disorder. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserve d.