The Predictive Value of Criminogenic Needs on Institutional Misconduct in a Dutch Forensic Hospital

According to the Risk-Need-Responsivity model, criminogenic needs are important in predicting violent behavior. Eight criminogenic needs are considered strong predictors: history of antisocial behavior, antisocial personality traits, criminal attitudes, criminal associates, substance abuse, family problems, poor work performance, and lack of involvement in prosocial leisure/recreation activities. The purpose of the current study was to examine whether seven criminogenic needs predict institutional misconduct in the first year of admission of Dutch patients who were admitted to a forensic hospital. Hospital records of 234 male patients were used to retrieve criminogenic needs assessed with the HCR-20^V3, with exception of criminal associates which was coded based on file review. The frequency of institutional misconduct was rated for verbal aggression, physical aggression, and sexual aggression. Exploratory analyses examined whether there was a (predictive) relation between psychopathy facets (PCL-R factors) and HCR-20^V3 clinical and risk management scales, and institutional misconduct. This study finds that criminogenic needs did not predict physical and sexual institutional misconduct, but a history of antisocial behavior and criminal attitudes were negative predictors for verbal aggression. Psychopathy facets and HCR-20^V3 scales did not predict institutional misconduct.