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

mentally disordered offenders

Emma Warnock-Parkesa, , , Gisli Gudjonssonb and Julian Walkerc

aEast CMHT, Salcot Crescent, New Addington, Croydon, CR0 0JJ, United Kingdom

bInstitute of Psychiatry, The Addiction Sciences Building, P.O. Box 78, Windsor Walk, Denmark Hill, SE5
8AF, United Kingdom

Received 8 March 2007; revised 19 July 2007; accepted 12 October 2007. Available online 3 December
2007.

Abstract

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.

Corresponding author. Tel.: +44 1689 308423; fax: +44 1689 800874.

Personality and Individual Differences

Volume 44, Issue 4, March 2008, Pages 833-841

doi:10.1016/j.paid.2007.10.013