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Understanding the Negative Effects of Psychological Treatments in Forensic Settings

“If we only ask whether interventions help, then we risk missing when they harm…. Safer interventions require the same scientific attention to harms as we already give to benefits.”

That was the conclusion to Dr. Lindsey Gilling’s presentation to the International Forensic Psychiatry Lecture Series.

She provided recommendations for forensic mental health practitioners, researchers, funding agencies, and journal publishers to expand the science of effectiveness to include the science of safety.

Microcosms of violence among street gang members: Social contagion, propensity to violence, and gang embeddedness

Violence in gangs doesn’t affect everyone the same way. It clusters around small groups of people who are closely connected to each other and to violent behaviour. Gang members who act violently, spend time with violent peers, or know people who have been victimized have a much higher risk of being victims of violence themselves. In contrast, gang members who avoid violence and build nonviolent connections are less likely to be victimized.