Violent women: a multicentre study into gender differences in forensic psychiatric patients.

de Vogel, Vivienne; Stam, Jeantine; Bouman, Yvonne H. A.; Ter Horst, Paul; Lancel, Marike

To gain insight into the relatively small, but increasing group of women in forensic psychiatry, a retrospective multicentre study was started gathering information from the files of 275 female patients of four Dutch forensic psychiatric hospitals on characteristics and violence risk factors. Overall, a picture emerged of severely traumatized women with complex psychopathology with multiple previous treatment failures and many incidents during treatment. The present study investigates specific psychiatric and criminal characteristics of female patients by comparing their data to those of 275 male forensic psychiatric patients. Various prominent differences were found, for example, women had more complex histories of victimization, were more often diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, were more likely to commit homicide and arson and less likely to commit sexual offenses, and were more often involved in inpatient aggression than their male counterparts. Several recommendations for gender-responsive treatment and directions for future research are provided.

VIOLENT women; WOMEN criminals; FORENSIC psychiatry; WOMEN prisoners; RISK assessment

Journal of Forensic Psychiatry & Psychology, 2016, Vol 27, Issue 2, p145

1478-9949

Academic Journal

10.1080/14789949.2015.1102312