NCJ Number
151673
Date Published
1994
Length
99 pages
Annotation
This violence prediction scheme (VPS) takes what is generally known about predicting violent behavior, including data on male offenders and mentally disordered males with past violent conduct, and presents it in a form for use by clinicians, administrators, and researchers.
Abstract
The VPS is based on the violence prediction literature, legal and political issues in risk assessment of violent men, procedures for assessing dangerousness, and statistics on a sample of 332 men admitted to a mental hospital for treatment and 286 additional men assessed and documented like the others but not followed beyond the evaluation period. The VPS is based on such predictive factors as identifying and background information, circumstances leading to evaluation, current offense information, family and childhood history, education, occupational history, medical and psychiatric history, substance use, criminal history, and adult functioning and sex history. Risk assessment is viewed as an expanding responsibility for mental health professionals, and the need to integrate clinical and actuarial judgments when assessing dangerousness in high-risk men is stressed. Appendixes contain a sample psychosocial assessment, a sample actuarial risk appraisal, and static predictors of violent recidivism in mentally disordered offenders. References, notes, tables, and figures