Introductory comments to the special issue, high risk offenders with personality disorders: Conceptual and scientific bases

Abstract

In this special issue of Psychology, Crime & Law, we bring together a set of papers by acknowledged experts in the field which summarize important concepts and findings which are essential to the future development of effective interventions for high risk offenders with severe personality disorders. The contributions fall into three sections: (a) Conceptual issues, (b) Treatment, (c) and Assessment and Evaluation. Contributors have been encouraged to develop and present what they see as important issues and to make some cross-reference to the "What Works" framework in offender rehabilitation. One of the perplexing aspects of the concept of personality disorder, at least for psychologists, has been the separation of theories of personality disorder from theories of (normal) personality. It is difficult to understand how an adequate description and theoretical explanation of personality disorder can be provided without reference to what is known about the structure of normal personality and of factors with a causal role as determinants of personality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)