The assessment of perpetrators of sexual homicide for the purposes of risk reduction in secure psychiatric hospital and prison settings

Abstract

Our level of understanding of the risk of people who have committed sexual homicide, as well as the tools available to inform assessments with these individuals, is not as advanced as for other forensic populations. Despite this, there are steps we can take to help us make meaningful assessments for the purposes of risk reduction work with these perpetrators. When making a formulation that can inform risk reduction approaches with sexual homicide perpetrators, it is important to determine the motivation for the killing, and the functional role of the actual or intended sexual behaviour in the killing. Integral to assessment is eliciting an account of the sexual homicide from the perpetrator. The ability and willingness of the perpetrator to provide an account may vary due to factors that can be within or outside of their control. Forensic practitioners should make efforts to ensure perpetrators of sexual homicide are engaged collaboratively in the assessment process. These contextual issues include recognizing, from the perpetrator’s perspective, some of the barriers to disclosure that can exist for them and developing appropriate ways of responding to these. Skills including motivational interviewing and Socratic questioning can be employed alongside up to date knowledge about sexual homicide research and the patient or prisoner file information, police records, and assessment information, to develop formulations and plan risk reduction work.