Psychopathy in a sample of mentally ill women ascertained in the Italian court and considered socially dangerous

Abstract

In this retrospective observational study, we aimed at investigating the presence and degree of psychopathy as well as its possible association with clinical characteristics in a sample of women detained in the Italian residence for the execution of security measure (REMS) of Castiglione delle Stiviere (Mantova, Italy). The 50 recruited women had been judged to be lacking criminal re-sponsibility or having substantially diminished responsibility and socially dangerous. A PCL-R total score cut-off > 25 was used to distinguish between patients with or without psychopathy. The analysis of the data highlighted significant associations between psychopathy and borderline personality disorder with comorbid substance abuse, crimes of theft or personal injury. Those patients who were detained due to homicide or attempted homicide and suffered from schizo-phrenia spectrum disorders showed lower PCL-R scores than others.