93-11-12 Violence and Society VIOLENCE AND SOCIETY Stand-offs by religious fanatics, murdering hostages in prisons, random shootings along city streets--violence appears increasingly in the news. How can the public protect itself from senseless killing? When should a convicted sexual offender be considered "safe" enough to return to society? At what point are the rights of society eclipsed by the rights of criminals? Grappling with some of society's most troublesome and controversial issues is the University of Virginia's Institute of Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy. The institute focuses on the interface of law and behavioral science in its training, education, research and service programs. The professional staff of attorneys, psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers confront daily such challenges as predicting dangerous, criminal behavior, evaluating the rights of the mentally disordered, assessing mental health for courtroom proceedings and considering complex human rights issues. The following offers a brief listing by subject areas of the expertise available through the institute. A full description of the institute's professional staff is at the end of the subject headings. note: unless otherwise indicated, the phone number of the experts below is (804) 924-5435. DELUSIONS, HALLUCINATIONS, THOUGHT DISORDERS IN CRIME Janet Warren, who directs the Forensic Evaluation Information System for the Virginia Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse Services, studies such symptoms as hallucinations, delusions and thought disorders that are commonly associated with clinical opinions that support legal insanity. FORENSIC ASSESSMENTS Psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers in the institute's Forensic Psychiatry Clinic, provide evaluation services in criminal and juvenile court cases. Among the issues they address are competency to stand trial, competency to confess and criminal responsibility. Contact: Gary Hawk. The institute also provides training in forensic evaluation and technical assistance for evaluators statewide. Contact: Larry Fitch. HOMICIDE Capital Murder The Forensic Psychiatry Clinic has evaluated more than 60 defendants charged with capital murder. The institute is concerned with complex legal and clinical issues raised by this most-serious of criminal cases. Broad topics the staff is frequently asked to provide expert opinion on include: "Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity" Larry Fitch and Ken Hoge, who teach a psychiatry and criminal law course, explore in their research the relevance and contributions of psychiatry and psychology to criminal trials. Among the issues they investigate are the insanity defense, competency to stand trial and psychiatric involvement in sentencing. Larry Fitch also trains mental health professionals to conduct evaluations for the courts. Sadistic Murderers Janet Warren, in collaboration with the FBI National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime, recently examined 17 sexually sadistic serial murders. "The sexually sadistic killer represents one distinctive type of serial murderer whose expertise and thoroughness make a particularly dangerous threat to society," Warren said. Their study concluded that sexually sadistic serial murderers typically are white men with above-average IQs who almost always chose strangers as victims. The majority came from middle or upper-class origins and from families characterized by infidelity and divorce. Women Who Murder Janet Warren, who serves as a consultant on three sexual assault projects sponsored by the FBI Academy's National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime, lectures on women who murder as part of the graduate program recently developed by the FBI Academy. RAPE AND SEXUAL VIOLENCE Characteristics of Rapists Janet Warren, in collaboration with the FBI National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime, has studied extensively the background, life history and behavior characteristics of the serial rapist, as well as the behaviors that can be used to predict an escalation in violence after successive rapes by the same perpetrator. Predicting Serial Rape? Janet Warren is studying the temporal and geographic patterns of three serial rapists in an attempt to determine if patterns of offenses can be organized around "anchor points." She thinks the work may lead to predicting the escalation and timing of subsequent rapes. SATANIC CULTS AND RITUALISTIC CRIME Janet Warren is author of numerous articles on deviant criminal sexuality and a frequent speaker on Satanism and ritualistic crime. SEXUAL SADISTS Janet Warren, Park Dietz and Roy Hazelwood are studying the experiences of seven women who have been consensually involved with criminal sexual sadists and the process by which the victims are transformed from independent, competent women into compliant victims of their criminally active partners. STALKING--PURSUIT OF PUBLIC FIGURES Janet Warren, Park Dietz and Dan Martell studied 214 individuals who have pursued celebrities and other public figures. They found that many subjects have a variety of delusions including the conviction that they had some special relationship with a public figure, that the celebrity could rescue them from their persecutors or that they were being persecuted by that public figure. THREAT TO SOCIETY--DETERMINING CRIMINAL RESPONSIBILITY Janet Warren, Larry Fitch and Barry Rosenfeld conducted a study of 894 defendants referred by Virginia courts for evaluation of competency to stand trial or ability to understand criminal responsibility. VIOLENCE Assessing Violent Behavior Dewey Cornell, a clinical psychologist in collaboration with Gary Hawk and Janet Warren, is studying how to assess violent criminal defendants. With funding by the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, the study includes developing and field-testing a procedure for assessing violent behavior. (804) 924-0793 Predicting Violent Behavior John Monahan is author of Clinical Prediction of Violent Behavior, which won the 1982 American Psychiatric Association's award. (804) 924-3632 Violence In College Communities Janet Warren has recently conducted a study of incidents of violence that occurred at or near the University of Virginia during 1990, '91, and '92. The results will be displayed on a mapping program to show the location and nature of each crime. Violence in Children Dewey Cornell has received funding from the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation to research juvenile homicide and violent behavior in youth. He also co-authored Juvenile Homicide in 1989. (804) 924-0793 Violence and the Mentally Disordered Richard Bonnie, Ken Hoge and John Monahan are active participants in the MacArthur Research Network on Mental Health and the Law that is investigating three central areas on mental health law and policy. The areas are: risk of violence posed by the mentally disordered, (2) competency of the mentally disordered to make autonomous decisions and (3) coerced treatment. Monahan is also co-author of a forthcoming book, Violence and Mental Disorder, in which the authors discuss whether mentally ill people are more violent than others and describe ways that it might be possible to identify mentally disordered people who have the potential for violence. Monahan is also the founding president of the Division of Psychology and Law of the American Psychological Association and director of the Research Network on Mental Health and the Law of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Bonnie: (804) 924-4764, Hoge: (804) 924- 4709; Monahan: (804) 924-3632 Institute Faculty Richard J. Bonnie, LL.B., John S. Battle Professor of Law, Director of the Institute W. Lawrence Fitch, J.D., associate professor of law; director, Forensic Evaluation Training and Research Center Janet I. Warren, D.S. W., associate professor of social work and of psychiatric medicine John Monahan, Ph.D., Henry and Grace Doherty Professor of Law and professor of psychology and legal medicine; director, MacArthur Network; associate director of the Institute Paul A. Lombardo, Ph.D., J.D., associate professor of law; director, Mental Health Law and Research Center Gary L. Hawk, Ph.D., associate professor of psychiatric medicine; director of psychology S.K. Hoge, M.D., associate professor of psychiatric medicine and law; principal investigator, competence and coercion projects; medical director of the Institute Karen Castle, Office Services Specialist, University News Office P.O. Box 9018, Booker House, Charlottesville, VA 22906 (804) 924-7116, kac@virginia.edu [Submitted by: Karen A. Castle (kac@uva.pcmail.virginia.edu) Fri, 12 Nov 93 16:49:43 EST]