โ Scribed by Charles Patrick Ewing
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
Eorts to predict and prevent dangerous acts have, in recent years, evolved into a rapidly growing, broadly deยฎned discipline known as threat assessment. Drawing upon a variety of empirical studies as well as practical experience, psychologists, psychiatrists, law enforcement professionals, and other practitioners have developed and applied models for assessing the risk posed by given individuals in a host of diverse contexts.
This special issue of Behavioral Sciences and the Law highlights a number of these applied approaches as well as some of the empirical data underlying threat assessment more generally. In planning this volume, input was sought from a number of threat assessment professionals. Among those whose guidance was most useful was Dr. Chris Hatcher, one of the recognized pioneers and leaders in the emerging ยฎeld of threat assessment. While many of Dr. Hatcher's ideas are reยฏected in the contents of this issue, and he is co-author of one of the articles published here, sadly he will never have the opportunity to see these contributions in their ยฎnished form. Chris died unexpectedly in early 1999. This issue of Behavioral Sciences and the Law is dedicated to his memory.
The issue opens with an empirical article, ``Dangerousness and disability as predictors of psychiatric patients' legal status,'' by Lois Pokorny, Robert D. Shull, and Robert A. Nicholson, who conducted discriminant analyses on two samples of psychiatric patients considered for legal commitment. They report that most of the variance in the decision whether to commit these patients was accounted for by measures of disability, while indices of dangerousness, personal resources, and demographics were of little value in discriminating between discharged and committed patients.
In another empirical article, the interdisciplinary team of Russell E. Palarea, Michael A. Zona, John C. Lane, and Jennifer Langhinrichsen-Rohling compared intimate and non-intimate stalking cases managed by the Los Angeles Police Department's Threat Management Unit. In ``The dangerous nature of intimate stalking: Threats, violence and associated risk factors,'' these authors examined risk factors for assessing the dangerousness of stalkers and found that violence towards persons and property was signiยฎcantly related to the nature of the stalking (intimate versus non intimate). Interestingly, this relationship was positively inยฏuenced by the stalking suspect's proximity to the victim and use of threats but not by the suspect's criminal, psychiatric, or domestic violence histories.
In ``Aggressive acts and assaults in intimate relationships: Towards an understanding of the literature,'' Felicity Goodyear-Smith and Tannis M. Laidlaw critically review domestic violence data, note that female on male domestic is probably more prevalent than is generally recognized, and conclude that where CCC 0735ยฑ3936/99/030251ยฑ02$17.50
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