The Use of Crime Scene and Demographic Information in the Identification of Non-Serial Sexual Homicide.

As with other sexual offenders, sexual homicide perpetrators can be reluctant to talk about their criminal behavior. Therefore, in homicide cases, forensic practitioners frequently rely on crime scene information to identify any sexual behavior associated with the offense. This study aims to identify objective and readily available crime scene information, alongside information about victims and perpetrators, based on 65 cases from England and Wales in the United Kingdom of men convicted of homicide who had committed a non-serial sexual homicide and 64 cases of men convicted of homicide where the available evidence indicated that it was a non-serial non-sexual homicide.

Treatment progress in medium security hospital settings for women: changes in symptoms, personality and service need from admission to discharge.

Background: Service evaluations of medium secure hospital facilities for women are underrepresented in the extant literature.

Hypothesis: That positive changes in symptoms, personality traits and service need would be evident between admission and discharge among women in a medium security hospital service.

Methods: A pre-test/post-test design was used, with comparisons made between admission and pre-discharge points on a variety of measures of psychiatric symptoms and personality traits.

The influence of admission characteristics on outcome: evidence from a medium secure forensic cohort.

Objective: Outcomes for any mental health service will vary with the characteristics of those admitted as well as with the clinical provision of the service itself. This study aims to explore, for a medium secure forensic service in England, temporal changes in (1) characteristics of those admitted and (2) outcome after discharge and (3) to examine whether such changes are related.

Method: Baseline characteristics and reconviction outcomes were derived from multiple data sources for 550 first admissions to a medium secure forensic unit for a 20-year period.

Developing an assessment of fire-setting to guide treatment in secure settings: the St Andrew's Fire and Arson Risk Instrument (SAFARI).

Background: Arson and fire-setting are highly prevalent among patients in secure psychiatric settings but there is an absence of valid and reliable assessment instruments and no evidence of a significant approach to intervention.

Aims: To develop a semi-structured interview assessment specifically for fire-setting to augment structured assessments of risk and need.

Method: The extant literature was used to frame interview questions relating to the antecedents, behaviour and consequences necessary to formulate a functional analysis.

Patients with a history of arson admitted to medium security: characteristics on admission and follow-up postdischarge.

Patients who set fires are a perennial cause of concern with psychiatric services although perhaps rather neglected in the clinical research literature. The current study considered the characteristics on admission of 129 patients, 93 men and 36 women, with a known history of arson who had been admitted to a medium secure psychiatric hospital. The distinguishing characteristics of the sample were high numbers of patients with extensive criminal histories, most probably due to high levels of prison transfer and a higher occurrence of mental illness than psychopathic disorder.

Engagement in psychosocial treatment: its relationship to outcome and care pathway progress for women in medium-secure settings.

Background: Engaging patients in treatment in secure settings is a major challenge. Engagement is associated with a shorter length of stay, whereas treatment non-completion is associated with an increased risk of recidivism.

Aims: The aims of this study were to assess differences between high and low treatment attendees in a women's medium secure unit and to compare progress over the course of their stay.

Methodological considerations in the evaluation of offender interventions: the problem of attrition.

Attrition from offender interventions presents methodological problems when the effectiveness of the intervention is under evaluation. This article proposes a treatment-received (TR) design, which incorporates one-to-one matching on criminogenic variables. This design permits the comparison of completer, noncompleter, and nonstarter groups with their paired comparisons and, hence, allows a more accurate evaluation of program completion and noncompletion effects.

The effect on reconviction of an intervention for drink-driving offenders in the community.

This study reports an evaluation of the Drink-Impaired Drivers program in the English and Welsh probation service. Participants were adult male offenders who had been convicted of a drink-driving offence and were serving community sentences. The 1-year drink-drive reconviction rates were compared for offenders who completed the program, offenders who started but did not complete the program, and a comparison group who were not allocated to the program.

Evaluation of the addressing substance-related offending (ASRO) program for substance-using offenders in the community: a reconviction analysis.

This article reports an evaluation of the Addressing Substance-Related Offending program in the English and Welsh Probation Service. Participants were 319 adult male offenders who had a history of substance use and were serving community sentences. A quasi-experimental design was used to compare the reconviction rates of offenders who completed the program, offenders who started but did not complete the program, and a comparison group of offenders who were not allocated to the program.

Treatment of chronic anorexia nervosa: a 4-year follow-up of adult patients treated in an acute inpatient setting.

Despite evidence from a number of long-term follow-up studies of anorexia nervosa that nearly 50% of patients eventually make a full recovery, controlled trials of psychotherapy for anorexia nervosa are lacking. Those with severe and enduring problems represent a considerable therapeutic challenge. Thirty-four consecutive adult referrals to the inpatient treatment unit who fulfilled Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition diagnostic criteria for anorexia nervosa were examined pre-admission, post-discharge and 4 years after admission.

Dealing with Feelings: the effectiveness of cognitive behavioural group treatment for women in secure settings.

Background: Women in secure psychiatric settings have gender specific treatment needs. The current study examined the feasibility of a Dealing with Feelings Skills Group training for dual diagnosis women admitted to a medium secure setting.

Method: A pre-test--post-test design was used to evaluate a group programme adapted from dialectical behaviour therapy skills training.

Assessing comorbid substance use in detained psychiatric patients: issues and instruments for evaluating treatment outcome.

This review assesses the issues involved in the selection and treatment of patients comorbid for mental illness and substance misuse being treated in secure psychiatric facilities. It includes those individuals who have a history of offending and whose placement is the result of severe behavioral disturbance. The relevant issues in the assessment and treatment of these patients are reviewed and a battery of tests is suggested on the basis of their usefulness with this population in terms of their brevity, ease of administration, and for their value in planning treatment, providing motivational feedback, and monitoring change.

Structural, item, and test generalizability of the psychopathy checklist--revised to offenders with intellectual disabilities.

The Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) is the most widely used measure of psychopathy in forensic clinical practice, but the generalizability of the measure to offenders with intellectual disabilities (ID) has not been clearly established. This study examined the structural equivalence and scalar equivalence of the PCL-R in a sample of 185 male offenders with ID in forensic mental health settings, as compared with a sample of 1,212 male prisoners without ID. Three models of the PCL-R's factor structure were evaluated with confirmatory factor analysis.

The development of a 'best practice' service for women in a medium-secure psychiatric setting: treatment components and evaluation.

The inadequacy of inpatient facilities for women with severe psychiatric and co-morbid difficulties has been repeatedly documented. The establishment of effective therapeutic programmes for women in medium psychiatric facilities is also in their infancy, and little research has been undertaken. This article describes the development of a 'best practice' psychological treatment programme for women with a dual diagnosis.

Usefulness of the CANFOR-S for measuring needs among mentally disordered offenders resident in medium or low secure hospital services in the UK: a pilot evaluation.

Background: The short form of the forensic version of the Camberwell Assessment of Needs (CANFOR-S) (Thomas et al., 2003) is of potential value in all clinical forensic settings, but so far reported mainly with high security hospital patients.

Aims: To conduct a pilot study of the feasibility of using the CANFOR-S in medium and low security hospital units and to report preliminary findings there.

Development of the Observation Scale for Aggressive Behavior (OSAB) for Dutch forensic psychiatric inpatients with an antisocial personality disorder.

The Observation Scale for Aggressive Behavior (OSAB) has been developed to evaluate inpatient treatment programs designed to reduce aggressive behavior in Dutch forensic psychiatric patients with an antisocial personality disorder, who are "placed at the disposal of the government". The scale should have the sensitivity to measure changes in the possible determinants of aggressive behavior, such as limited control of displayed negative emotions (irritation, anger or rage) and a general deficiency of social skills. In developing the OSAB 40 items were selected from a pool of 82 and distributed among the following a priori scales: Irritation/anger, Anxiety/gloominess, Aggressive behavior, Antecedent (to aggressive behavior), Sanction (for aggressive behavior) and Social behavior.

The importance of appropriate allocation to offending behavior programs.

This study examined the impact on reconviction of appropriate allocation to three general offending behavior programs involving adult male offenders in the English and Welsh Probation Service. Appropriate allocation was defined by level of risk for reconviction. There were three allocation groups: too low, appropriate, and too high.

Aggression control therapy for violent forensic psychiatric patients: method and clinical practice.

Aggression control therapy is based on Goldstein, Gibbs, and Glick's aggression replacement training and was developed for violent forensic psychiatric in- and outpatients (adolescents and adults) with a (oppositional-defiant) conduct disorder or an antisocial personality disorder. First, the conditions for promoting "treatment integrity" are examined. Then, target groups, framework, and procedure are described in detail, followed by the most important clinical findings during the period 2002 to 2006.

Long-term outcomes after discharge from medium secure care: a cause for concern.

Background: There are few long-term follow-up studies of patients discharged from medium secure units in the UK, even though these units were introduced over 20 years ago.

Aims: To describe mortality, rates of reconviction at different time periods; violent behaviour (not leading to conviction), readmission and employment, after discharge from a medium secure unit.

Method: Of 595 first admissions over a 20-year period, 550 discharged cases were followed-up.

An adapted version of the Rosenzweig Picture-Frustration Study (PFS-AV) for the measurement of hostility in violent forensic psychiatric patients.

Background: The original Rosenzweig Picture-Frustration Study (PFS), designed to measure reactive aggressive behaviour in adults, contains 24 pictures of ambiguous situations in which someone is making a remark that can be interpreted as provocative.

Aim: An adapted version of Rosenzweig's PFS (PFS-AV) was developed to assess the hostile thoughts elicited by interpersonal frustrating situations in forensic psychiatric patients with a conduct disorder or an antisocial personality disorder.

Methods: Patients were asked to give their responses in a few words on paper, which were then evaluated for hostility using a seven-point Likert scale.

Level of Service Inventory-Revised profiles of violent and nonviolent prisoners.

Level of Service Inventory-Revised (LSI-R) assessments were conducted on 251 male prisoners beginning prison sentences in six English prisons. The prisoners who were classified as violent, on the basis of either current or previous convictions, scored significantly higher than the nonviolent prisoners on the four LSI-R subscales of Criminal History, Companions, Education and Employment, and Alcohol and Drugs. In addition, those prisoners with a record of violent offenses gave higher total LSI-R scores, indicating an overall higher risk of recidivism.