Violence risk assessment instruments in forensic psychiatric populations

A study that assessed the predictive performance of violence risk assessment tools in forensic mental health engaged 10,460 participants. Most of these studies relied on the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) as their primary measurement metric, and the AUC values ranged from 0.72 to 0.64. Notably, a significant risk of bias was identified in 98% of these studies. These results indicate a compelling rationale for forensic mental health services to reevaluate their tool selections and prefer those supported by more robust empirical evidence.