Perceived Dangerousness and Treatability of Offenders

Abstract

Each of 24 laypersons and 24 clinicians were asked to evaluate 4 of 16 fictitious case histories. The histories culminated in a theft, an armed robbery, a murder, or an attempted suicide. Half of the subjects read histories that were designed to produce an internal attribution of causality and half read histories that would elicit an external attribution. In the internal condition, many prior instances of the same type of behavior as that involved in the offense and little immediate environmental provocation were described; opposite descriptions occurred in the external condition. There were few differences of opinion between the laypersons and clinicians. The internal condition was associated with higher ratings of stability, internality, and controllability of cause; as predicted, it was related to higher ratings of dangerousness. Offenders in the internal condition were seen as less likely to benefit from treatment than offenders in the external condition. Perceived treatability of the offender was negatively related to perceived dangerousness. In general, these results support the application of attribution theory to clinical judgment and support the view that, with respect to personality disordered offenders, treatment decisions are made on the basis of commonsense criteria.