Predicting violent reconvictions using the HCR-20

Gray, Nicola S., Taylor, John and Snowden, Robert Jefferson ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9900-480X 2008. Predicting violent reconvictions using the HCR-20. British Journal of Psychiatry 192 (5) , pp. 384-387. 10.1192/bjp.bp.107.044065

Full text not available from this repository.

Abstract

Background Risk assessment of future violent acts is of great importance for both public protection and care planning. Structured clinical assessments offer a method by which accurate assessments could be achieved. Aims To test the efficacy of the Historical, Clinical and Risk Management Scales (HCR–20) structured risk assessment scheme on a large sample of male forensic psychiatric patients discharged from medium secure units in the UK. Method In a pseudo-prospective study, 887 male patients were followed for at least 2 years. The HCR–20 was completed using only pre-discharge information, and violent and other offending behaviour post-discharge was obtained from official records. Results The HCR–20 total score was a good predictor of both violent and other offences following discharge. The historical and risk sub-scales were both able to predict offences, but the clinical sub-scale did not produce significant predictions. The predictive efficacy was highest for short periods (under 1 year) and showed a modest fall in efficacy over longer periods (5 years). Conclusions The results provide a strong evidence base that the HCR–20 is a good predictor of both violent and non-violent offending following release from medium secure units for male forensic psychiatric patients in the UK.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Psychology
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
Publisher:	Royal College of Psychiatrists
ISSN:	0007-1250
Last Modified:	20 Oct 2022 08:28
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/28461

Citation Data

Cited 99 times in Scopus. View in Scopus. Powered By Scopus® Data

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item