Personality assessment in offenders with mild and moderate intellectual disabilities

Abstract

Personality assessments are a clinically useful tool for offenders from the general population, and assessments of personality disorder can be used to predict future risk, as well as the likely trajectory and outcome of psychological interventions. There has been very little research examining the clinical utility of personality assessment in offenders with intellectual disabilities, both from the perspective of normal personality and from the perspective of personality disorder. After discussing the small amount of relevant research available, this article uses a clinical case example to demonstrate how a clinician might go about assessing different personality characteristics in offenders with mild and moderate intellectual disabilities, and interpreting the results. A model is presented to guide the clinician through the process of test selection, and details of the main tests under consideration are summarised in an appendix, including some of their strengths and weaknesses.

Citation

Mason, J. (2007), "Personality assessment in offenders with mild and moderate intellectual disabilities", The British Journal of Forensic Practice, Vol. 9 No. 1, pp. 31-39. https://doi.org/10.1108/14636646200700006