Multiaxial evaluation of violent criminals.

A multiaxial assessment and personality evaluation was performed on a group of 70 people (65 men and 5 women) who were recently incarcerated in Málaga, Spain for having committed violent crimes, such as murder and sex-based violence. Analysis of scores on the MCMI indicated that there were chiefly two clearly differentiated personality profiles related to two personality disorders present in the group, the antisocial and the dependent personality disorder with compulsive traits. The "antisocial-psychotic group" presented a clear relation with clinical syndromes, specifically alcohol and drug abuse with delusional disorder, and they had committed a higher proportion of murders. On the Big Five Questionnaire, the "dependent-compulsive group" scored higher than average on Emotional Stability and Agreeableness, whereas the antisocial-psychotic group scored lower than average on Emotional Stability. These findings are in accord with those of Megargee, who concluded that violent criminals can be divided into two categories, the undercontrolled (antisocial) and the overcontrolled (dependent).