No abstract

Purpose. Assessment is a core skill of clinical and forensic psychology practice and forms the basis of all ongoing engagements with offender/patients. In forensic settings, assessment involves the systematic gathering of reliable data on the characteristics of offenders and the offences which they have committed in order to develop understanding of the dynamics of offending and relevant intervention strategies. However, whilst the assessment process is aided by various protocols, no such instrument appears to exist for the assessment of an offender/patient's index offence. This paper presents a draft ‘index offence analysis guide’ designed by the present authors for this purpose and which has been piloted on prisoners and patients in secure settings. Argument.  Evidence suggests that for various reasons, many clinicians do not routinely review crime scene data while working with offenders. However, this practice is arguably questionable, because how can decisions about admission, amenability to treatment, risk of reoffending, and discharge be made if there is limited awareness of what the offender/patient has done? The present authors argue that knowledge of the index offence is important to understanding the offender and suggest this can be obtained using a guide such as the one presented here. This is illustrated with an anonymous case. Conclusion. Index offence analysis should be a core task of any forensic clinician engaged in the assessment of offender/patients as it can provide a better understanding of crime scene actions and offence motivations. This can help guide treatment planning and improve risk assessments.

Further controlled studies assessing the value of psychological debriefing techniques in the treatment of established PTSD are required.

Clinical psychologists are sometimes asked to provide operational support to senior investigating officers in major crime inquiries including murder, abduction, and serious violent and sexual assault. Working directly with police officers investigating an offense inevitably forces psychologists to focus on the phenomenology of the offense. This can lead to an enhanced understanding of the critical relationship between the detail of the crime scene and the offender. This article sets out some of the relevant theoretical frameworks that underpin clinical psychologists' role in the police investigative context. It is argued that such offense analysis should already be a routine component of forensic clinical assessment; however, anecdotal evidence would indicate that this is not so. Improving this aspect of the assessment process, when used in conjunction with other actuarial and structured clinical approaches, should improve any attempts at treatment planning and risk assessment.

Pragmatic psychology, as outlined by D. Fishman (1999), serves as the inspiration for this article's recommendation to integrate the currently opposing factions within offender profiling. These factions have variously been referred to as “inductive/deductive,” “statistical/clinical,” or “academic/practitioner” approaches. This article outlines how the separation into different factions is both misrepresentative and needlessly divisive and thus undermines the potential contribution of behavioral science to the investigative endeavor. Through a case study, the article illustrates how a pragmatist's approach would encourage a more productive and synergistic dialogue between the camps. This, in turn, may lead to the creation of a useful and productive archive that would facilitate the professionalization of what has too often seemed an ill-formed forensic discipline.