Forensic Risk Research Articles

Forensic Engineering Risk Assessment Of Machine Accidents Caused By Employers

New Jersey Court Rulings From 2003 To The Present Permit An Injured Worker To File A Claim Directly Against His Or Her Employer Separate From Workers Compensation Claims, Under Limited Circumstances. However, An Injured Worker Must Demonstrate That The Employer Created Conditions That Resulted In A Substantial Certainty Of Injury. Therefore, There Is A Need For Well-Founded Forensic Engineering Evaluations And Opinions To Determine Whether Employer Conduct Created A Substantial Certainty Of Injury In The Workplace. This Paper Discusses Established Methodology To Evaluate The Risk Of Injury From Employer Created Hazards Based On Actual Case Experiences Of The Authors.

The prediction of criminal recidivism

Instruments based on actuarial forensic risk assessment models are sensitive to the calibration sample, and the inclusion criteria for the subjects of a study population will influence the features of the resulting model. If the same instrument is used in populations that are not part of the calibration sample, the discriminative validity of the instrument is jeopardized; thus the definition of the calibration sample is very important. The aim of this study was to examine how sensitive prognostic models are to the calibration sample. Two samples (N = 773) of offenders sentenced to at least 10 months in prison for a violent or sexual offense were used in this study. The "sanction sample" (recruited during August 2000, N = 515) consisted of all violent and sexual offenders actively administrated by the Criminal Justice System of Zurich, Switzerland. The "verdict sample" (recruited over two years, N = 258) included all offenders convicted in the Canton of Zurich during a two-year period. Both samples were unbiased, since all subjects that met the study criteria were included. In the first analysis, differences between the two samples were shown with respect to socio-demographic, criminological, and psychiatric variables using bivariate logistic regressions. In the second analysis, recidivism was estimated separately for both samples, using a logistic regression model as a function of a set of psychiatric, socio-demographic and criminological variables. Bivariate logistic regression showed that different risk factors for recidivism existed for both samples. Forensic risk assessment models are very sensitive to the calibration sample. There is strong evidence that, even when index-offenses and the socio-cultural background are the same, risk factors for recidivism differ depending on the stage of the judicial process in which the subjects are (e.g. whether a subject is indicted, on conditional release, on parole, or no longer under the supervision of a parole board). Unfortunately, none of the currently available actuarial risk assessment instruments that have been validated in European countries consider the different stages of the judiciary process.

Legal and Technical Issues Management Framework for Peer-to-Peer Networks

In the area of electronic and mobile commerce there are unique legal risks as well as concerns that also apply to traditional businesses. This paper reviews the impact of peer-to-peer ebusiness models in a legal and technical context with a view to formulating technical and legal policy suggestions for technologists, scientists, managers and government policy makers. To assist in addressing the intractable nature of the problems the researchers have developed a preliminary Legal Issues Management Framework. Issues such as forensic auditing, technical diligence, lawful intercept and sovereign risk are canvassed as well as the threats to current ebusiness models. Various traditional laws have been successfully applied to electronic transactions and new laws (cyberlaws) have been devised to deal with the latest technologies. Practitioners of P2P businesses must be aware of legal requirements and the risks involved in doing business in cyberspace. The digital economy develops at e-speed but the law does not. This paper outlines the enormous technological advances that impact on P2P business models and illustrates, with international examples, the reactions from international and national legal communities.

Forensic Risk Assessment and Dangerous Driving

Dear Editor: In the January 2005 pissue of the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, risk assessment in psychiatric practice is reviewed. Four helpful articles provide general psychiatrists with an up-to-date, current overview of forensic practice and risk assessment. In particular, Clinical Use of Risk Assessment, by Graham Glancy and Gary Chaimowitz, carefully reviews the current practice of acting on a risk assessment and the duty to protect a specific population at potential risk of physical threat or injury (1). But what about the risk to the general population from forensic patients as a result of their dangerous driving behaviours? Under the 2000 Canadian Medical Association guidelines (2), general physicians as well as general psychiatrists are mandated to report drivers with psychiatric illness to their local ministry of transportion when the illness is thought to interfere with their ability to drive a motor vehicle safely. Unfortunately, no clinically useful instruments are readily available to guide clinicians in this important risk assessment. Current findings from a metaanalysis of the world literature on driving risk and psychiatric illness reveals significant findings related to substance use but a deficit in other diagnostic categories that are relevant to forensic psychiatry (3). In particular, there are no significant data available to guide clinicians regarding the degree of risk associated with a diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder and driving. This lack of available evidence-based data relating to psychopathy is compounded by inherent difficulties faced by forensic psychiatrists in clinical practice. There appears to be an inherent conflict in asking leading questions regarding potentially dangerous driving styles that may inhibit open disclosure about other more immediately relevant clinical forensic issues. McGill University is currently conducting a Canadian-based survey on psychiatrists' knowledge of and practice in psychiatric illness driving and reporting styles (4). It would be interesting to compare a representative group of forensic psychiatrists' current practice of reporting high-risk drivers, during the course of their clinical practice, with a sample of more general psychiatrists not engaged in forensic work. The development of a simple screening device for problem driving would be useful to all physicians in everyday practice. Such an instrument might have a place in the overall forensic risk assessment. As Glancy and Chaimowitz note in their article, Further instruments should be established and well validated (1, p 13). We are currently developing a clinical screening instrument, the Jerome Driving Questionnaire, that we hope will be useful in general clinical practice, as well as in more specialized areas such as forensic work. Preliminary data indicate that this instrument shows clinically useful correlations with on-the-road driving assessments, made by experienced driving instructors, of driving risk in nonclinical populations of novice drivers (5).

Re: Forensic Risk Assessment and Dangerous Driving

Re: Forensic Risk Assessment and Dangerous Driving

Examining the Science and Practice of Violence Risk Assessment with Female Adolescents.

While the field of violence risk assessment among adult males has progressed rapidly, several questions remain with respect to the application of forensic risk assessment tools within other populations. In this article, we consider the empirical evidence for the assessment, prediction, and management of violence in adolescent girls. We discuss limitations of generalizing violence risk assessment findings from other populations to adolescent girls and point out areas where there is little or no empirical foundation. Critical issues that must be addressed in research prior to the adoption or rejection of such instruments are delineated. Finally, we provide practice guidelines for clinicians currently involved with adolescent females within risk assessment contexts.

A concept analysis of forensic risk.

Forensic risk is a term used in relation to many forms of clinical practice, such as assessment, intervention and management. Rarely is the term defined in the literature and as a concept it is multifaceted. Concept analysis is a method for exploring and evaluating the meaning of words. It gives precise definitions, both theoretical and operational, for use in theory, clinical practice and research. A concept analysis provides a logical basis for defining terms through providing defining attributes, case examples (model, contrary, borderline, related), antecedents and consequences and the implications for nursing. Concept analysis helps us to refine and define a concept that derives from practice, research or theory. This paper will use the strategy of concept analysis to find a working definition for the concept of forensic risk. In conclusion, the historical background and literature are reviewed using concept analysis to bring the term into focus and to define it more clearly. Forensic risk is found to derive both from forensic practice and from risk theory. A proposed definition of forensic risk is given.

A Review of Approaches to Forensic Risk Assessment in Australia and New Zealand

Although there has been extensive research on risk assessment in mental health over the past decade, its practice internationally has not been fully investigated. The aim of this study was to describe the current status of risk assessment in forensic psychiatry facilities in Australia and New Zealand. Forty-one health professionals from five forensic psychiatry units in these countries completed a questionnaire on risk assessment and risk management in mentally disordered offenders. Little consistency was found in the approaches used and the research base on which the approaches were employed was in some cases of questionable validity. These findings have implications for the development of more consistent approaches to risk assessment in forensic populations.

The distress of guidelines

The formulation of guidelines for our health care system is under the dictates of limited financial resources a demand of legislation and therefore a duty from which medical doctors cannot and should not free themselves. Doing so we've got to see not only the possible savings, the better information of patients and physicians, the more transparency and control, but also the negative consequences for the scope of treatment, the responsibility under civil and criminal law, i.e. the forensic risk of the physician, and for the freedom of choice and self-determination of the patient. Establishing guidelines an objective consideration of pros and cons is demanded, no euphoria but self-restraint upon the necessary with respect to the number but also the content of guidelines.

Forensic Risk Assessment in Intellectual Disabilities: The Evidence Base and Current Practice in One English Region

The growing interest in forensic risk assessment in intellectual disability services reflects the perception that deinstitutionalization has exposed more people to a greater risk of offending. However, ‘risk’ and the related idea of ‘dangerousness’ are problematic concepts because of connotations of dichotomous definition, stability and predictability. Assessment instruments in mainstream forensic psychiatry often combine actuarial and clinical data, and increasingly stress the dynamic nature of risk as well as the importance of situational and accidental triggers. Despite this increasing sophistication of research in mainstream forensic psychiatry, the ability to predict future offending behaviour remains very limited. Furthermore, actuarial predictors developed in studies of psychiatric or prison populations may not be valid for individuals with intellectual disabilities. Offending behaviour among people with intellectual disabilities is also hard to circumscribe because it often does not invoke full legal process or even reporting to the police. In order to discover how such problems were reflected in practice, a survey of providers in the North-west Region of England was undertaken. Seventy out of 106 providers identified as possibly relevant to this inquiry responded to a short postal questionnaire. Twenty-nine (42%) respondents – mainly in the statutory sector – reported operating a risk assessment policy relating to offending. The number of risk assessments completed in the previous year varied from none to ‘several hundred’. Providers reported three main kinds of problems: (1) resources or service configuration; (2) interagency or interdisciplinary cooperation or coordination; and (3) issues relating to the effectiveness, design and content of assessment.

Risk, Policing and the Management of Sex Offenders

This paper examines current police policy and practice in assessing and managing the risks paedophiles pose to children. It focuses on the complex relationship between legislative and policy frameworks, in this case the Sex Offenders Act 1997 and the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, and how these are adapted and applied in different contexts to control the behaviour of paedophiles. Drawing on a study of a Child Protection Unit, it is argued that the pure and scientific forms of risk assessment and management found in policy statements are hybridized through police practice, under the influence of factors such as police culture and the 'hunches' of individual officers. Three hybridized models of risk are identified: the forensic risk model, the witness model and the police-rationale-for-intervention risk model. These models help us to understand how the police sustain and justify their working practices as they attempt to detect, investigate and regulate paedophiles in a diversity of settings.

Functional failure of an inspiratory Draeger-circuit system. An example of the fundamental problem of borderline damage to a component part in anesthesia and intensive care

Unnoticed, minor damage to the unidirectional respiratory valves of the Draeger respiratory circuit may lead to intermittent and unpredictable malfunction, resulting in rebreathing and hypercapnia. The damage may be so minor that normal visual and functional test routines may be insufficient to detect it. We report one case of a potential life-threatening malfunction of the inspiratory valve and also propose economical solutions utilizing altered construction, modified machine-check procedures, or a simple instrument that adds only one step to the machine-check procedure. The general problem of minor but functionally important damage to parts of ventilatory equipment--so-called borderline damage--may not be limited to this particular model or manufacturer. Most users of ventilatory equipment believe that equipment that goes through normal check procedures is either fully functional or nonfunctional. In reality, this is not the case. Intermittent malfunctions due to slightly damaged equipment may be missed with normal machine-check procedures. This problem results in a significant but incalculable increased in risk to patients. Because of unclear reproduceability of intermittent malfunctions caused by borderline damage, there also is an increased forensic risk for the anaesthesiologist. The risk of mechanical malfunction might be displaced by software problems in new-generation ventilators in the market.

The actor, the act and the environment: forensic psychotherapy and risk

The assessment and management of risk is a complex task best achieved by interdisciplinary professional collaboration. This paper discusses the specialist contribution of forensic psychotherapy to this increasingly important area. The assessment and management of risk may be enhanced by psychodynamic understanding of the internal world of the offender patient and the unconscious meaning of the forensic act as well as by psychodynamic examination of the interactions between the patient and his environment.