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.

KEYWORDS:

• social network analysis
• forensic psychiatry
• risk assessment and management

Notes

¹ Historical items (H-items): previous violence, age at first violent offense, family and vocational background, and etcetera.

² Clinical items (C-items): current symptomatology and psychosocial adjustment.

³ Risk management items (R-items): release and treatment plan, necessary services and support.

The funding organizations did not play a role in the design and conduct of the study; the collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; or the preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript.

⁴ Bem and Funder model (1978) poses three questions (Monahan, 1981): (1) What characteristics describe the situations in which the person react violently; (2) what characteristics describe the situations which the person will confront in the future, and (3) how similar are the situations the person will confront in the future to those that have elicited violence in the past?