During decisions about release, or whether a person is eligible for parole from prison or other institutions.
Using risk predictors of possible future violence
The risk of violence is higher for each of the following aspects:
If the person’s a man (need I say more?).
People with any previous history of violence or serious criminality.
People who experienced physical abuse as a child.
People who live in an area with high levels of crime and violence.
People with a history of substance abuse and dependence.
People with a personality or adjustment disorder, such as those I discuss in Chapter 10 (people with other mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, are typically
less
likely to be violent in the community).
Psychiatric patients who have hallucinations of voices commanding violent acts.
People reporting violent thoughts and imagining violence in the future.
People found to have a high degree of anger.
The risk of future violence, however, can be greatly reduced if any of a number of things happen to a person to change how they see the world and themselves. These
protective factors
include getting a satisfying job, forming a caring relationship and having children. Certain sorts of mental illness, for example, in which a person suffers from delusions, can turn the person in on themselves so much that they’re not a danger to others, but may be a danger to themselves.
The details of a person’s previous offences are very important. If the violence erupted against particular targets or in certain situations, understanding them and the person’s views about them can be helpful in predicting future violence and in setting up any therapeutic treatment.
One particularly important predictor of violence is when an offender has a specific target in mind. If he’s angry or vengeful towards a particular person, and is willing to mention that fact, the forensic psychologist needs to take his statement very seriously. Plenty of examples exist where released offenders said that they’d take violent revenge and did exactly that.
