[ANSWER]Can Psychiatrists Accurately Predict Violence Risk?

[ANSWER PREVIEW] ON VIOLENCE RISK ASSESSMENT

In forensic psychiatry, violence risk assessment is performed using tools that fall into two broad categories: actuarial and clinical risk assessment tools (Monahan, 2013). Actuarial tools predict violence risk based on group data as opposed to individual data (Phillips, 2012). Premised on empirical evidence, these tools involve assessing violence risk on the basis of factors that have historically been shown to be predictors of violent crime (Norko & Baranoski, 2007). Examples of such factors include psychopathy, antisocial behaviour, substance abuse, a criminal history, childhood troubles, as well as demographic variables like age, gender and marital status (Sreenivasan et al., 2000).

The Violence Risk Appraisal Guide (VRAG), the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R), the Psychopathy Checklist Screening Version (PCL-SV), the Dynamic Appraisal of Situational Aggression (DASA), the Classification of Violence Risk (COVR), the Broset Violence Checklist (BVC), and the Level of Service Inventory-Revised (LSI-R) are the most common actuarial tools for predicting violence risk (Ramesh et al., 2018). For sexual offenders, the Sex Offender Risk Assessment Guide (SORAG) and the Rapid Risk Assessment of Sex Offender Recidivism (RRASOR) are among the most widely used actuarial risk assessment tools (Sreenivasan et al., 2000). While actuarial tools rely on group data, clinical tools use individual data (Phillips, 2012).

In other words, rather than considering the population from which data is drawn, the psychiatrist considers the individual, with emphasis being placed on personal and clinical data such as personality disorder, substance abuse, and non-adherence to treatment (Ho et al., 2009). Violence risk is then determined on the basis of the psychiatrist’s experience and intuition. Between the two categories, actuarial risk assessments tools are regarded as more effective in predicting violence as they are more objective and evidence-based (Monahan, 2013; Norko & Baranoski, 2007). Nevertheless, some studies…[Buy Full Answer for Just USD 9: 2900 WORDS]

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