The forensic psychiatric and psychological arena has long been tasked to understand the correlates of aggression and provide opinions about an individual’s risk to commit a violent act. Violence can be physical, sexual, psychological, or any combination. It is an act that is intended to harm another. Our understanding of the factors that contribute to violence has certainly evolved over the past two to three decades. And, with this, the introduction of risk assessment methods has served to improve our ability to make predictions about someone’s risk to act out violently. Most tools currently available to assist in the prediction of violence, however, are largely intended for youth and working-aged adults who have justice involvement. At the current time, there are no tools available that assess the risk of violence posed by older adults.
Read moreVol. 5, No. 1, 2022
A Conceptual Framework for the Management of a COVID-19 Outbreak on a Secure Forensic Inpatient Unit
Responses to outbreaks of the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) in secure forensic settings have included several interventions, such as cohorting, assertive testing, isolation units, and infection control practices. The design of forensic facilities and the psychiatric impairment inherent to the patient population can make compliance with pandemic protocols challenging. In this study, we report on a COVID-19 outbreak on a low secure forensic inpatient unit in a large mental health hospital. For the 17 patients on the unit, we compared data from the 22-day COVID-19 outbreak period with the 30 days before the outbreak. We developed patient profiles that informed decision-making in COVID-19 outbreak management and developed a conceptual framework to identify interventions to effectively respond to and manage the outbreak. Patients had a decrease in as-needed nicotine replacement therapy during the outbreak. The average Dynamic Appraisal of Situational Aggression score increased slightly across all patients during the outbreak, though these differences were not statistically significant. Although forensic settings present challenges in outbreak management, leveraging therapeutic alliance, highlighting the importance of working together, communicating the rationale for measures, and providing staff information and tools such as a conceptual framework can support patients’ following protocols and effective management of an outbreak.
Read moreConvergent, Discriminant and Predictive Validity of Two Instruments to Assess Recidivism Risk Among Released Individuals Who Have Sexually Offended: The SORAG and the VRAG-R
Recidivism risk assessment has played an essential role in the criminal justice system for many years. Various risk assessment tools have been developed and recalibrated over the years for the purpose. Two such instruments, the Violence Risk Appraisal Guide (VRAG) and the Sex Offender Risk Appraisal Guide (SORAG), were both revised before being combined into the VRAG-R. The aim of our study was to evaluate the convergent, discriminant and predictive validity of the SORAG and the VRAG-R in a cohort of 294 released individuals who have sexually offended in French Belgium. Results suggest that the tools have good convergent validity and the ability to discriminate the risk level of individuals who have sexually offended with victims younger than 14 years old, whether intra- or extra-familial, from that of others at higher risk for re-offending. Where predictive validity is concerned, the scores on both instruments predict nonviolent nonsexual recidivism with a large effect size, and general recidivism (any type of recidivism) and violent nonsexual recidivism with a medium effect size. Sexual recidivism is not predicted at a statistically significant level by either the SORAG or the VRAG-R. Violent recidivism (sexual and non-sexual combined) is moderately predicted by the SORAG and the VRAG. However, these predictive qualities vary by the age of the victim. Certain combinations of items can be good predictors. In this regard, the VRAG-R items “failure on conditional release” and “marital status” together constitute a predictive model for general recidivism and sexual recidivism. The addition of the item “age at index offense” improves this model for general recidivism.
Read moreMesures alternatives à l’emprisonnement pour les enfants en conflit avec la loi : situation au Niger
Le Niger demeure un pays avancé en termes d’élaboration et d’adoption de textes juridiques sur la justice des mineurs, mais souvent le pays est confronté à des difficultés d’application et d’applicabilité des textes. Voici un exemple de l’application des textes relatifs à la mise en œuvre des mesures alternatives à l’emprisonnement pour les enfants en conflit avec la loi.
Read moreParticipation as an Expert in Cases Involving the Production of Mental Health Records in Canadian Courts
In Canada, s. 278 of the Criminal Code sets out a two-stage procedure for the disclosure of records to the defence when there is a reasonable expectation of privacy. In this article, we summarize the nature of this legislation and the cases that directly led to its formation. We then review the implications for practice for mental health professionals. The main purpose of this article is to review a relatively new role for forensic mental health professionals: acting as experts in informing the court whether the disclosure is in the interests of justice.
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