Forensic Psychology & Psychiatry
Forensic psychiatry and psychology focus on the assessment and treatment of offenders in an attempt to reduce the risk of recidivism.
As a research team we aim to contribute to the continuous development of our respective fields and encourage the use of evidence-based interventions and techniques.
Abstracts of our main research projects, such as the Zurich Forensic Study, are provided on the next pages.
New
Publications
- Female offender: "Gender differences in violent offenders"
BMC Psychiatry 2009, 9:81
Compared to male offenders, females convicted of violent offences are less educated, had more negative childhood experiences, and have worse mental health, suggesting this should be considered in treatment plans and intervention strategies. » Article - Risk Assessment Instruments in Repeat Offending: The Usefulness of FOTRES.
International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology. 2010 Feb 11. [Epub ahead of print]
Research in the area of predicting recidivism has produced several well-validated standardized risk assessment instruments. The question arises, which instruments best serve which purposes. The objective of this study was to evaluate and compare several actuarial and dynamic risk assessment instruments as to their predictive accuracy and their usefulness in forensic practice. The sample consisted of 109 violent and sex offenders who had been released from prison in Switzerland between 1994 and 1999, and for whom the PCL-R, HCR-20, LSI-R, VRAG, and the FOTRES were scored. Using bivariate logistic regression analyses, all instruments were able to discriminate between recidivists and non-recidivists. The ROC analyses yielded AUC values between 0.70 (VRAG) and 0.84 (PCL-R). Furthermore, it was shown that solely examining AUC values does not suffice to determine usefulness. A comprehensive evaluation of an instrument’s usefulness for forensic practice should also look at qualitative criteria such as area of application, specificity of risk assessed, inclusion of dynamic items, among others.