The Association between Borderline Personality Disorder and Criminal Activity and Self-harm, Including Suicidal Behavior: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is an extraordinarily complex and least-understood mental disorder. It is currently known that BPD is related to aggression and anger. However, fewer studies focused on the prevalence of BPD symptoms among criminal offenders and their association with crime. This systematic review act per Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) 2020 guidelines. We searched PubMed, PubMed Central (PMC), Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online (MEDLINE), and Science Direct for appropriate studies and research. Screening of articles was performed based on relevance and inclusion and exclusion criteria. To check for bias, we used relevant quality appraisal tools. Initially, we found 10026 articles. After removing duplicates and irrelevant papers, we finalized 18 studies based on titles, abstracts, and reading entire articles. We excluded eight studies because of poor quality, and the remaining ten papers were included in this review. BPD was related to criminal activities and suicidal and non-suicidal acts. Adverse childhood experiences positively predicted self-injurious behavior. There is a positive linkage between BPD symptoms and general offense, Inter-Partner Violence (IPV), and Child Abuse Potential (CPA).