Inpatient violence in a Dutch forensic psychiatric hospital

Abstract

Purpose -Inpatient violence can have a major impact in terms of traumatic experiences for victims and witnesses, an unsafe treatment climate, and high-financial costs. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to gain more insight into patterns of violent behavior, so that adequate preventive measures can be taken. Design/methodology/approach -Data on inpatient violence in a Dutch forensic psychiatric hospital between 2008 and 2014 were extracted from hospital files on 503 patients. Findings -More than half of all the patients (n ¼ 276, 54.9 percent) displayed verbal aggression on at least one occasion, whereas 27.2 percent of all patients (n ¼ 137) exhibited one or more incidents of physical violence. Female patients were responsible for more physically violent episodes than male patients. Patients admitted with a civil court order exhibited more violent behavior than patients with a criminal court order. Violent patients with a civil commitment had a significantly longer length of stay than non-violent patients with a civil commitment. More violence was found to take place on the earlier days of the week. Originality/value -This study points at important differences between groups of forensic inpatients in frequency and type of inpatient violent behavior and in temporal factors. Interventions aimed at reducing the number of violent incidents should take these differences into account. Further research is necessary to gain more insight into the background of inpatient violence.

Physical Violence During Mandatory Psychiatric Treatment: Prevalence and Patient Characteristics

“…Two studies found higher assault rates among patients with a nonforensic commitment type than patients with a forensic commitment (Broderick et al, 2015; Linhorst & Parker Scott, 2004). Two studies, that were conducted in the same hospital as the present study, although on different samples, found that civil patients had higher rates of verbal aggression than forensic patients, but equal rates of physically violent incidents (Verstegen et al, 2017), and that female forensic patients caused the most severe violent incidents, followed by female civil patients. Male forensic patients caused the least severe incidents (Huitema et al, 2018).…”

“…Data on violent incidents that occurred between January, 2014, and December, 2019, were retrieved from daily hospital reports and patients’ medical records. The daily reports, aimed to inform patients and staff on current events in the hospital, briefly describe violent behavior and have been used as a violent incident measure in other studies (Huitema et al, 2018; Verstegen et al, 2017). If the reports stated that a violent incident occurred, subsequent information about the incident was retrieved from the patient’s medical records.…”

Virtual Reality Aggression Prevention Therapy (VRAPT) versus Waiting List Control for Forensic Psychiatric Inpatients: A Multicenter Randomized Controlled Trial

“…Aggression of forensic psychiatric inpatients is highly prevalent, with recent estimates between 31% and 59% of at least one violent assault during hospitalization [1,2]. Inpatient aggression threatens safety and wellbeing of both patients and staff [3,4].…”

Anxiety Mediates the Link Between Psychopathy and Aggression in NGRI Acquittees

“…An insanity plea is rare (0.29%–1.73%) and very few of these cases end in acquittal (0.12% and 0.52%; Cirincione et al, 1995). However, NGRI acquittees are high-risk patients for aggression during treatment and have the additional challenge of serious mental illness (SMI) (Thomson, Galusha, et al, 2020; Verstegen et al, 2017). Even though early conceptualization of psychopathy stated that psychopathic individuals should have an “absence of delusions and other signs of irrational thinking” (Cleckley, 1984, pp.…”