There is emerging recognition that positive or pro-social characteristics may lessen criminal propensity. There are now several adult and youth forensic instruments that include protective or strength components. Yet evidence supporting the protective capacities of these instruments with youth offending populations is still developing. This study aimed to identity the prevalence of strength items on the Youth Level of Service/Case Management Inventory tool, and their relationships with risk and re-offending for a cohort of 212 multi-cultural Australian juveniles in custody. The prevalence of strengths in the sample was low, and differed by cultural group. Young people who possessed a strength yielded lower instrument total and domain scores and were more likely to be afforded a lower level of risk compared to youth without a strength. Moreover, youth who possessed a strength were significantly more likely to desist from re-offending. This association remained after controlling for level of risk. Findings point to the importance of strengths when assessing a young person’s risk for re-offending.

This study compared the severity of intimate partner violence (IPV) and the relationship between risk factors for IPV and overall risk judgments of future IPV in urban, rural, and remote areas. IPV risk assessments conducted by the Swedish police between 2010 and 2014 in urban (n = 564), rural (n = 456), and remote (n = 196) areas were examined. Rurality was associated with the severity of IPV reported, as well as the presence of risk factors and their relationship to overall risk judgments. Cases in remote areas included more severe IPV as well as more risk factors.

The knowledge of same-sex intimate partner violence (IPV) is limited. This study aims to investigate the perception of seriousness of same-sex IPV. A vignette study was undertaken among 248 police students (69% males and 31% females) in Sweden. The vignettes portrayed an intimate partner relationship between two people and were available in four versions with the sex of the offender and victim being alternated. Perceptions of IPV were measured using the Opinions of Domestic Violence Scale (Ahmed et al., 2013). The results showed that regardless of gender, IPV was considered serious; however, same-sex IPV was perceived as less serious than victimization of a heterosexual female but more serious than victimization of a heterosexual male. Police interventions were found to be less needed for same-sex victims than for heterosexual female victims.

Background: Self-injury and institutional violence are well-known characteristics of female forensic psychiatric patients, but research on patients' experiences of these behaviours is limited.

Aim: The aim of the study was to investigate how female forensic psychiatric patients describe their self-injury and aggression.

Methods: The authors performed qualitative in-depth interviews with 13 female forensic psychiatric inpatients. The interviews were analysed using thematic analysis.

Results: The analysis resulted in three themes describing the process of handling negative thoughts and emotions by using self-injury or aggression towards others and thereby experiencing satisfaction. Both self-injury and aggression were experienced as strategies for emotional regulation. The forensic psychiatric care was perceived as important for the women in developing less harmful strategies for coping with negative thoughts and emotions instead of injuring themselves or others.

Conclusions: Self-injury and aggression are often risk-assessed separately, but results from the present study suggest that these behaviours need a more holistic approach.

Purpose: Police play an essential role in reducing harms associated with family violence by identifying people at increased risk of physical or mental health-related harm and linking them with support services. Yet police are often poorly trained and resourced to conduct the kind of assessments necessary to identify family violence cases presenting with increased risk. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

Design/methodology/approach: This paper describes a multi-project collaboration between law enforcement, forensic mental health, and academia that has over three years worked to improve risk assessment and management of family violence by police in Victoria, Australia.

Findings: Evaluation of existing risk assessment instruments used by the state-wide police force showed they were ineffective in predicting future police reports of family violence (AUC = 0.54-0.56). However, the addition of forensic psychology expertise to specialist family violence teams increased the number of risk management strategies implemented by police, and suggested that the Brief Spousal Assault Form for the Evaluation of Risk assessment instrument may be appropriate for use by Australian police (AUC = 0.63).

Practical implications: The practical implications of this study are as follows: police risk assessment procedures should be subject to independent evaluation to determine whether they are performing as intended; multidisciplinary collaboration within police units can improve police practice; drawing on expertise from agencies external to police offers a way to improve evidence-based policing, and structured professional judgement risk assessment can be used in policing contexts with appropriate training and support.

Originality/value: The paper describes an innovative collaboration between police, mental health, and academia that is leading to improved police practices in responding to family violence. It includes data from the first evaluation of an Australian risk assessment instrument for family violence, and describes methods of improving police systems for responding to family violence.

This presentation will describe the primary results of a prospective research project spanning over eight years (2009-2016), introducing a structured approach to policing family violence. This research project was funded by the Swedish Crime Victim Support and Compensation Authority. The aim of the research project was to implement and evaluate the use of structured professional judgments tool of assessing violence for risk. More specifically, risk assessment checklists for intimate partner violence, stalking, and honor related violence was introduced as a working method within the two Swedish police districts of Jämtland and Västernorrland. The first phase of the project constituted of the implementation of the risk assessment checklists. This involved training the police in how to use the checklists. The second phase of the project constituted of data collection and evaluation. Thus, risk assessments performed between 2011 and 2014 for all police-reported cases of intimate partner violence, stalking, and honor related violence in the two police districts were collected. Furthermore, risk management strategies recommended by the police, in order to prevent future violence, were evaluated. Additionally, qualitative interviews with police and district attorneys were conducted. The results demonstrated that the use of structured violence risk assessment checklists works well within the Swedish police to reduce the risk for violence by suggesting proper risk management. However, the results demonstrated that there was no existing routine for documenting the risk management strategies, making follow up evaluation of their efficacy difficult. Finally, an overall presentation of the research papers produced, based on the results of this project, will be given.

Research of recidivism among intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetrator subtypes has demonstrated inconclusive results. The present study sought to outline the recidivism patterns between two subtypes; antisocial and family-only perpetrators. The aim of this study was to compare these subtypes regarding IPV recidivism rates and type of recidivism crime. We also explored and compared time to IPV recidivism between the subtypes. In this prospective study data was obtained from the Swedish police. The material constituted of 628 male IPV perpetrators subjected to a structured violence risk assessment between 2011 and 2014 in two Swedish police districts. The perpetrators were categorized as antisocial (n = 327) or family-only (n = 301) based on general criminality. Recidivism was measured as any new police report of an IPV related crime. Results demonstrated that antisocial perpetrators recidivated to a larger extent than family-only perpetrators (27.2% vs. 12.9%). Antisocial perpetrators were more prone to recidivate in both physical and non-physical violence. Furthermore, antisocial perpetrators had a longer critical time period for recidivism and recidivated faster in non-physically violent IPV compared to family-only perpetrators. These findings highlight the need to consider different risk management strategies depending on the type of IPV perpetrator in order to prevent future violence.

The aim of this study was to compare antisocial and family-only intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetrators in terms of IPV recidivism rates, type of recidivism crime, and time to recidivism. A total sample of 628 perpetrators was categorized as antisocial (n = 327) or family-only (n = 301) based on general criminality. Results demonstrated that antisocial perpetrators recidivated to a larger extent than family-only perpetrators (27.2% vs. 12.9%). Antisocial perpetrators were more prone to recidivate in both physical and nonphysical violence. Of the perpetrators who recidivated, the majority did so within the first year after their index crime. However, antisocial perpetrators recidivated more than family-only perpetrators after the first year. key findings consisted of the subtypes’ differing propensity to reoffend and their different critical time periods for recidivism. These findings suggest the need for different risk management strategies depending on perpetrator subtype to prevent future violence.