The relationship between the Maudsley Violence Questionnaire and official recordings of violence in mentally disordered offenders

The Maudsley Violence Questionnaire (MVQ; Walker, 2005) measures cognitions relating to violent behaviour. Although the measure has been found to relate to self-report delinquency in an adolescent sample, it is yet to be used in a clinical or forensic sample. Therefore, this paper investigates the relationship between the cognitive style of Machismo and Acceptance of violence (assessed by the MVQ) and objective measures of violence, within an adult forensic sample. Sixty-four male forensic inpatients completed the MVQ and their violent criminal convictions and documented incidents of institutional violence were recorded from medical records. In concordance with predictions, the Machismo scale was significantly related to both the number of past violent criminal convictions and institutional violence. The Acceptance of violence scale was significantly related to institutional violence only. A number of theoretical and clinical implications are discussed and future study into this growing area of research is encouraged.