Personality traits and their role in intimate partner violence recidivism: A 15-year follow-up study within a prison sample

Abstract

Intimate partner violence (IPV) continues to be a social issue. Despite psychological interventions, a significant percentage of men re-offend in the subsequent years following these interventions. High rates of treatment dropout pose an additional problem. This study aims to identify variables acting as long-term risk factors for recidivism in men incarcerated for IPV who participated in an in-prison treatment program for family-based offenders. To achieve this, data on recidivism, treatment dropout and variables related to psychopathy (primary and secondary), borderline personality, and impulsivity were collected from a prison sample of 1628 men convicted due to IPV with a 15-year follow-up. Kaplan-Meier analysis was conducted to estimate the survival function, and Cox regression and Aalen additive model were used to estimate the risk factors' cumulative impact. The results revealed that 25 % of men recidivism during the 15-year follow-up. Primary psychopathy and impulsivity variables were identified as risk factors, while immigration status and widowed status emerged as protective variables; the abandonment of treatment was identified as a significant risk factor but ceased to be a predictor after controlling by personality variables. This highlights the importance of extended follow-up and the consideration of personality traits as variables affecting treatment effectiveness.