Violence Risk Assessment with the HCR-20 in Legal Contexts: A Critical Reflection.

The HCR-20 is a violence risk assessment tool that is widely used in forensic clinical practice for risk management planning. The predictive value of the tool, when used in court for legal decision-making, is not yet intensively been studied and questions about legal admissibility may arise. This article aims to provide legal and mental health practitioners with an overview of the strengths and weaknesses of the HCR-20 when applied in legal settings.

Mental health courts and diversion programs: A global survey.

Research techniques in the fields of mental health courts and diversion need to be improved. As well, insights are provided as to how the evaluations of these programs could be strengthened. There are reports from jurisdictions managing mentally disordered accused in the criminal justice system without the benefit of these programs.

Commentary: evidence-based practice and forensic psychiatry.

A diverse sampling of articles was considered as a landscape against which evidence-based practice has been and should be a part of forensic psychiatry. Caveats were identified, limitations suggested, and recommendations made as to how such a marriage might work.

Mental health courts.

Purpose Of Review: To describe the aims and objectives of mental health courts. To give an overview of the current literature devoted to mental health courts. To suggest where we might go in the future.