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- Höglund, Pontus, et al.
(author)
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Accountability and psychiatric disorders: How do forensic psychiatric professionals think?
- 2009
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In: International journal of law and psychiatry. - : Elsevier BV. - 0160-2527 .- 1873-6386. ; 32:6, s. 355-361
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Swedish penal law does not exculpate on the grounds of diminished accountability; persons judged to suffer from severe mental disorder are sentenced to forensic psychiatric care instead of prison. Re-introduction of accountability as a condition for legal responsibility has been advocated, not least by forensic psychiatric professionals. To investigate how professionals in forensic psychiatry would assess degree of accountability based on psychiatric diagnoses and case vignettes, 30 psychiatrists, 30 psychologists, 45 nurses, and 45 ward attendants from five forensic psychiatric clinics were interviewed. They were asked (i) to judge to which degree (on a dimensional scale from 1 to 5) each of 12 psychiatric diagnoses might affect accountability, (ii) to assess accountability from five case vignettes, and (iii) to list further factors they regarded as relevant for their assessment of accountability. All informants accepted to provide a dimensional assessment of accountability on this basis and consistently found most types of mental disorders to reduce accountability, especially psychotic disorders and dementia. Other factors thought to be relevant were substance abuse, social network, personality traits, social stress, and level of education.
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| 2. |
- Svalin, Klara, et al.
(author)
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Police employees' violence risk assessments : the predictive validity of the B-SAFER and the significance of protective actions
- 2018
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In: International Journal of Law and Psychiatry. - : Elsevier. - 0160-2527 .- 1873-6386. ; 56, s. 71-79
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Violence risk assessment and management is conducted in police settings in order to prevent repeat victimization. One of the most frequently used violence risk assessment tools in this specific context is called the Brief Spousal Assault Form for the Evaluation of Risk (B-SAFER), which focuses on intimate partner violence (IPV). The present study examines B-SAFER assessments conducted by police employees, related protective actions and repeat IPV crimes in order to study: 1) to what extent risk- and victim vulnerability factors in the B-SAFER predicted global risk assessments, 2) the predictive accuracy of each B-SAFER item and the global risk assessments with regard to repeat IPV, 3) to what extent recommended protective actions were implemented and 4) the preventive effect of the implemented protective actions on repeat IPV. There were a large number of missing cases in the assessments and the risk and victim vulnerability factors only contributed to the global risk assessments to a minor extent. The predictive validity was low overall, few protective actions were implemented and those which were actually implemented did not appear to prevent repeat IPV. The continuous education and training of assessors is required to improve the work of violence risk assessment and management in police settings.
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