A subgroup of psychiatric patients are at increased risk of committing interpersonal violence, which may lead to placements in forensic-psychiatric institutions. The majority of patients treated in forensic hospitals have had contact with the general psychiatric care system years before being forensically committed due to an offence. Nevertheless, attempts to establish models related to violence prevention in general psychiatry have remained sparse.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis article describes the implementation of a Cantonal Threat Assessment and Management (CTAM) in Zurich, Switzerland. In order to support this endeavor, the Specialist Unit for Forensic Assessment and Case Management was installed. The forensic experts provide supervision and short-term assessments to public prosecutors and general psychiatrists.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAs compared to the general population schizophrenic patients are at increased risk of becoming delinquent. The majority of schizophrenic patients do not commit any crime, and the risk of the general population to be a target of a violent act by a person with schizophrenia is low. The causes of delinquency in schizophrenia are complex, but certain risk characteristics (e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe concept of warning behaviors offers an additional perspective in threat assessment. Warning behaviors are acts which constitute evidence of increasing or accelerating risk. They are acute, dynamic, and particularly toxic changes in patterns of behavior which may aid in structuring a professional's judgment that an individual of concern now poses a threat - whether the actual target has been identified or not.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFourteen non-terrorist attackers of public figures in Germany between 1968 and 2004 were intensively studied, with a particular focus on warning behaviors, attack behaviors, and the relationship between psychiatric diagnosis, symptoms, and motivations for the assault. A large proportion of the attackers were severely mentally ill, and most likely to be in the potentially lethal rather than the non-lethal group. A new typology of seven warning behaviors was applied to the data, and all were present, most frequently fixation and pathway warning behavior, and least frequently a direct threat.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF