Abstract

Background: Risk assessment and management is a necessary and integrated part of clinical work. Risk assessment methods developed in the legal context differ from those traditionally used in clinical work but have been used to an increasing degree in such contexts.

Aim: In general, traditional clinical assessment methods can be improved by using structured instruments. With respect to risk management, wellestablished criminological theory is worth testing. EuRAX is a comprehensive and structured clinical risk management tool which integrates concepts from current criminological theories.

Method: 139 forensic psychiatric patients (stratified selection) were scored according to EuRAX.

Results: Scoring was rather problem-free given the rich documentation in Swedish forensic case history files. Construct and discriminant validity was good. The patients displayed a wide array of problems assumed to be associated with criminal propensity. The concepts of “social bonds” and “poor self-control”, as operationalized in EuRAX, displayed meaningful and discriminant patterns with respect to the other EuRAX variables, and to HCR and PCL scores.

Conclusion: The use of well-established high-order criminological concepts, rated in a structured way, seems to provide important information relevant to the task of clinical risk management.

Keywords: Risk; Psychiatric diagnoses; Criminality; Violence; Forensic; Criminological theory