Personality Disorders in Criminal Offenders - A Systematic Literature Review

We summarized studies investigating measures related to the Alternative Model for Personality Disorders (AMPD) of the DSM-5 and the personality model in ICD-11 in offenders in forensic-psychiatric treatment or prison to evaluate its forensic utility.

The reformation of the DSM and ICD with regards to the introduction of dimensional assessments of personality disorders holds many advantages over categorical models concerning clinical utility.

With regards to DSM-5 AMPD Criterion A, a limited number of studies (k = 4) report impairments in interpersonal functioning in offenders. Studies assessing Criterion B (k = 13) predominantly report higher personality impairment measures for offenders, especially for antagonism and disinhibition. Due to the heterogeneity of the selected studies, this review cannot draw conclusions with regard to the predictive value of dimensional models for offenders in forensic-psychiatric treatment or prison, but provides initial evidence for the validity and utility of DSM-5 AMPD and ICD-11 in these settings.