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History of violence, substance abuse, and mental illness: perceptions of risk factors and communication of risk
Dissertation   Open access

History of violence, substance abuse, and mental illness: perceptions of risk factors and communication of risk

Kento Yasuhara
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Drexel University
Apr 2012
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17918/etd-3858
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Abstract

Forensic psychology Violence--Risk assessment Substance abuse--Risk factors Dangerously mentally ill--Risk assessment Clinical Psychology
Research on violence risk assessment has grown substantially in the last three decades. Much of this research has focused on the development of risk assessment tools, identifying factors which contribute to the risk of violence and offending. Among the risk factors investigated in this research are a history of violence, substance abuse, and serious mental illness. However, there are misperceptions within the general public (who might serve on juries making decisions informed by violence risk) about the degree to which history of violence, mental illness, and substance abuse may contribute to an individual's risk for future violence. The current study examines the perception of these three violence risk factors, selected because of the empirical evidence suggesting that two (violence history and substance abuse) are strong, while the third (mental illness) is misperceived to be strong but is actually modest. Participants were college students, each completing one of 8 vignettes in a 2 x 2 x 2 between-subjects design in which the presence of each of these three risk factors is systematically varied.

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