Effective treatment of psychopathy: reality or oxymoron

Dr. Stephen Wong, Ph.D. is Adjunct Professor at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada and Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne. Steve started his career as a psychologist at the Regional Psychiatric Centre, a maximum-security psychiatric hospital in the Correctional Service Canada. He was later appointed Chief of Psychology and Research, and then Director of Research.

In 2008, he left Canada to spend a year as Visiting Professor at the Department of Forensic and Neurodevelopmental Science at Kings College, London, and then as Honorary Professor at the Institute of Mental Health at the University of Nottingham.

His research interests are best described as a blending of applied research and clinical practice with a focus on the assessment and treatment of violent, sexual and psychopathic offenders. He is the lead author of the Violence Risk Scale (VRS) and the VRS sexual offence version (VRS-SO), tools that can be used to assess violence and/or sexual violence risk and treatment change. Steve and his colleagues also developed the Violence Reduction Programme (VRP) for the treatment of offenders including those with psychopathic traits. Among his 100+ publications, he authored the Guidelines for a Psychopathy Treatment Program with Robert Hare.