PSYC 3020 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Risk Assessment, Insanity Defense, Illusory Correlation

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 3020
• Professor: Kaitlyn McLachlan

Document Summary

Psychology of law lecture 7 risk assessment and psychopathy + Violence risk assessment assessing an individual"s likelihood of committing future violence. Risk hazard for adverse event(s) that is incompletely understood; likelihood of an unwanted outcome. What is risk assessment: risk is dynamic, probability change across time, risk severity can vary along a continuum. Decision points and settings: risk assessment conducted at major decision points and in many settings. Criminal settings: arrest, bail, pre-sentencing, during custody, release. Healthcare settings: commitment, security level, resource allocation, discharge. The base rate problem: base rate represents the percentage of people in a given population who commit a criminal act. Although some forms of mental disorders are related to an increased risk, a relationship has not been found. Ignore base rates clinicians tend to ignore base rates of violence: overconfidence in judgements- confidence and accuracy ratings are generally low.