Violence risk: re-defining variables from the first-person perspective

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Forensic Psychiatry
• Mental Health Research

Background:

• Advances in violence risk assessment for mentally ill individuals have primarily used actuarial methods focusing on observable factors.
• This has led to a relative neglect of subjective states in assessing and preventing violence.
• Idiographic features of subjective experience are proposed as valuable additions to structured assessment methods.

Purpose of the Study:

• To argue for the relevance of subjective experiences in violence risk assessment.
• To identify modifiable, time-varying aspects of mental functioning related to aggressive behavior.
• To propose a novel approach for studying violence risk states.

Main Methods:

• Identifying three heuristic groups of constructs related to aggressive and illegal behavior: construal of intent/cause, normative reference points, and emotion recognition/regulation.
• Suggesting systematic research on coded speech samples to study risk states.
• Proposing a coding method similar to existing structured clinical judgment instruments but defined from a first-person perspective.

Main Results:

• Subjective states, including construal of intent, normative reference points, and emotion regulation, are hypothesized to be key in predicting violence.
• Coded speech samples offer a direct and parsimonious method for assessing these risk states.
• The proposed first-person perspective coding method can be integrated into existing assessment frameworks.

Conclusions:

• Incorporating subjective experiences and idiographic features into structured violence risk assessment is crucial.
• Systematic research on coded speech samples, focusing on first-person subjective states, can enhance the accuracy of violence risk assessment.
• This approach has implications for the tertiary prevention of violence in high-risk individuals.