MCMI-III Grossman personality facets among partner-violent men in prison

Assessment of personality is one of the key yet most difficult issues in the study of violent behavior. Recent research on intimate-partner violence highlights the need to describe offender typologies in order to tailor interventions to their needs. The Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-III (MCMI-III) is commonly used in clinical and forensic settings, and Grossman facets are the latest additions to this instrument. They allow a more molecular diagnosis and may provide greater predictive ability when assessing violence. This study examines MCMI-III Grossman facets in 175 partner-violent men in prison. The results suggest the existence of three personality profiles that differ in their personality pathology severity, from lower pathological (Group 1; 27%) to greater pathological (Group 3; 30%). Subjects in Group 3 are more likely to show pathologies related to paranoid, sadistic, antisocial, negativistic, and borderline facets, which are all related to violent behavior. This group reported significantly more psychological aggression and minor sexual coercion (using the Conflict Tactics Scales2, CTS-2), however, no differences regarding physical violence were found. Implications of these findings for interventions with intimate partner violence perpetrators are discussed.