Resource Document on Psychiatric Violence Risk Assessment

Approved by the Joint Reference Committee, October 2011

The APA published a Task Force report, “Clinical Aspects of the Violent Individual,” in 1974 (1). Since then, the
assessment of violence risk by psychiatrists has assumed increased prominence (2, 3). At the same time, significant changes have taken place both in the contexts in which psychiatrists assess risk and in the techniques that help them do so.