Purpose Incidents of self-injury by forensic psychiatric patients often have a deleterious impact on all those involved. Moreover, self-injurious behaviour is an important predictor for violence towards others during treatment. The aim of this study is to analyse methods and severity of incidents of …

Health professionals’ attitudes to substance abusers have been reported as suboptimal with potential adverse consequences for the quality of health care provided. Less is known about professionals working with addicted clients in mandated contexts. The aim of this study is to gain insight into forensic …

Risk assessment instruments are widely used to predict risk of adverse outcomes, such as violence or victimization, and to allocate resources for managing these risks among individuals involved in criminal justice and forensic mental health services. For risk assessment instruments to reach their full …

Victim-offender contact has been studied extensively in prisons, but research on contact between victims and mentally disordered offenders in forensic mental health settings is lacking. Therefore, an exploratory study was conducted on contact between victims and offenders in four Dutch forensic psychiatric …

An effective implementation approach is crucial for successful integration of structured risk assessment instruments into practice. This qualitative study explored barriers and facilitators to the implementation of the Short-Term Assessment of Risk and Treatability: Adolescent Version (START:AV) in a …

There are few studies of stalking recidivism and none examining risk factors for recidivistic stalking of the same victim versus a different victim. Data from 70 clients of Dutch community forensic mental health clinics was used to investigate the prevalence of stalking recidivism, risk factors, and …

Purpose – Continuity of forensic mental health care is important in building protective structures around a patient and has been shown to decrease risks of relapse. Realising continuity can be complicated due to restrictions from finances or legislation and difficulties in collaboration between settings. …

The past two decades, a disproportionate growth of females entering the criminal justice system and forensic mental health services has been observed worldwide. However, there is a lack of knowledge on the background of women who are convicted for violent offenses. What is their criminal history, what …

Women and girls represent only a minority in the penitentiary system and in forensic mental health care. About 6%–10% of both prison and forensic psychiatric populations in Western countries comprise women (see for the most recent offi cial statistics in the UK w ww.gov. uk/government, in Canada w ww.statcan.gc.ca, …

Although girls and women represent only a minority of the forensic mental health and prison populations, studies worldwide suggest that there has been a steady increase in the number of females being convicted for committing offenses, especially violent offenses. In this chapter, an overview will be …