The Role of Personal Social Networks in Risk Assessment and Management of Forensic Psychiatric Patients

Abstract

Social network factors are usually not accounted for in the clinical practice of risk assessment/management.This article introduces a social network analysis as an instrument to systematically chart the relationships and personal networks of forensic psychiatric patients. During the period 2005 to 2007, the so-called Forensic Social Network Analysis (FSNA) was developed in a Dutch forensic psychiatric hospital. A case study describes the FSNA concepts and shows the benefits of using FSNA as a practical tool for assessment and management of individual risk behavior.