New tools to evaluate the violence risk

Abstract

Traditionally, mental health professionals are requested to provide their opinion regarding how danger are the mentally ill patients who come into contact with the judicial system. Both the assessment task and conceptualization have evolved through the years. Common practice errors were detected, mainly, the lack of systematization, idiosyncratic assessments and the lack of knowledge of basal rates, among others. The concept has evolved from one with judicial and political connotations towards into more clinical and epidemiological model, focusing, basically, on the risk assessment. During the last years, the predictive power of psychopathywas dimensioned, violence basal rates and recidivism rates were estimated for long periods of time, and actuarial models and schemes guiding clinical professional judgment were designed, allowing for risk assessment based on evidence. This paper provides a description of one of this scheme, the HCR 20, which has been recently translated into Spanish. The scheme captures and examines historical (past), clinical (present) and risk management (future) considerations.

Keywords

• Mental disorder
• psychiatric status rating scales
• risk assessment
• violence