PSYC39H3 Lecture : Chapter 7 psych and the law.docx
Document Summary
Chapter 7- violent offending: general violence and homicide. In this chapter we will review the prevalence and characteristics of violence in canada. We will present the some major theories of violent behavior, the major approaches to risk assessment, some of the more established risk assessment instruments, and research on the predictive accuracy of these instruments. Human aggression has been defined as any behavior directed towards another individual that is carried out with the proximate (immediate) intent to cause harm. In addition the perpetrator must believe that the behavior will harm the target, and that the target is motivated to avoid the behavior . Violence has been defined as aggression that has extreme harm as its goal . Violent crime accounts for approx one in eight criminal incidents in canada, the rate of violent crime has decreased since the early 1990 s, in 2007 the lowest rate was in ontario and the highest in saskatchewan.
