A Follow-Up of Rapists Assessed in a Maximum-Security Psychiatric Facility

Abstract

Recidivism and readmission data were gathered over an average 46-month follow-up period on 54 rapists released from a maximum-security psychiatric hospital. The failure rates for subsequent conviction for a sexual offense, subsequent violent offense, or subsequent offense of any kind were 28%, 43%, and 59%, respectively. Subjects who were convicted of a new sex offense, who committed a new violent offense, or who committed a new offense of any kind, were differentiated from those who did not by means of univariate and multiple discriminant analyses using personal characteristics, offense history data, and sexual-preference testing data. Sexual recidivism and violent recidivism were well predicted by phallometrically measured sexual interest in nonsexual violence and degree of psychopathy. The accuracy of prediction using these two variables alone was at least as good as that obtained in multivariate analyses using all of the study predictors.