Callous-unemotional (CU) traits represent the affective components of the psychopathy construct and show a strong relationship to violence and conduct-disorder in children. The Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits (ICU) is the current standard to assess CU traits. Despite the ICU having originally been constructed as a four-dimensional instrument, several studies found a threefactorial structure in combination with a general ICU-factor to be the best fitting factor-model. An imbalance in the number of positively and negatively worded items can be observed between the identified ICU dimensions. To investigate the effect of item keying on the factor structure we tested different factor-models in data stemming from a large sample (N = 3878) of German ninth grade students. Our findings suggest that the original four-factorial structure with a method factor shows good model fit. This solution is furthermore in line with the specifiers of the additional coding of Limited Prosocial Emotions for Conduct Disorder in the DSM-V.

Inpatient violence poses a great risk to the health and well-being of other patients and members of staff. Previous research has shown that prevalence rates of violent behavior are particularly high in forensic psychiatric settings. Thus, the reliable identification of forensic inpatients who are particularly at risk for violent behavior is an important aspect of risk management. In the present study, we analyzed clinicians’ assessments of N = 504 male and female inpatients of German forensic mental health institutions in order to identify risk factors for verbal institutional violence. Using a tree-based modeling approach, we found the following variables to be predictors of verbal aggression: gender, insight into the illness, number of prior admissions to psychiatric hospitals, and insight into the iniquity of the offence. A high number of prior admissions to psychiatric hospitals seems to be a risk factor for verbal aggression amongst men whereas it showed the opposite effect amongst women. Our results highlight the importance of dynamic risk factors, such as poor insight into the own illness, in the prediction of violent incidents. With regard to future research, we argue for a stronger emphasis on nonparametric models as well as on potential interaction effects of risk and protective factors.

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In Germany, short leave is an integral part of treatment in forensic psychiatric hospitals. It is believed that the practice has many benefits for patients' well-being and their treatment progress. However, the risk of an incident in the form of absconding or new offenses may be especially heightened during unsupervised short leave. This study analyzes the impact of unsupervised short leave on treatment progress using a pre-post design with follow-up and a sample of 298 forensic psychiatric patients. Furthermore, incidents on short leave were considered in the analysis. The results of the study suggest that unsupervised short leave can foster treatment progress. However, they also reveal that incidents during leave can disrupt the progress of treatment.

ZusammenfassungVollzugslockerungen stellen im Rahmen der forensisch-psychiatrischen Behandlung ein wichtiges Resozialisierungswerkzeug dar. Bei Entweichungen während Lockerungen handelt es sich angesichts der Anzahl der gewährten Lockerungsmaßnahmen um seltene Ereignisse. Trotz dessen gilt es, vor jeder Lockerungsgewährung das Risiko von Entweichungen einzuschätzen. Im Vergleich zur Bestimmung der allgemeinen Rückfälligkeit ist das Vorgehen bei der Lockerungsprognose bisher wenig erforscht und standardisiert. Auch wenn Instrumente zur Vorhersage erneuter Straftaten zur Lockerungsprognose eingesetzt werden können, stellt dies aufgrund der spezifischen Anforderungen an die Lockerungsprognose nur eine Übergangslösung dar. Die Etablierung eines lockerungsspezifischen Vorgehens ist wünschenswert. Im Rahmen des Artikels wird ein Überblick über 4 Instrumente zur Anwendung im Lockerungskontext gegeben, und bisherige Studienergebnisse zu diesen werden zusammengefasst: das Leave/Absconding Risk Assessment, das Short-Term Assessment of Risk and Treatability, das Booth Evaluation of Absconding Tool und die Waypoint Elopement Risk Scales. Erste Befunde zu den Risikoinstrumenten weisen weiteren Forschungsbedarf, insbesondere bei der Validierung außerhalb der Entwicklungsstichprobe und den Folgen der Anwendung, aus. Verbesserungen in der Risikoprogose können dabei zu einer weiteren Reduzierung der Entweichungsraten beitragen.