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. 2020 Nov;64(15):1533-1550.
doi: 10.1177/0306624X20923256. Epub 2020 May 29.

Longitudinal Network Structure and Changes of Clinical Risk and Protective Factors in a Nationwide Sample of Forensic Psychiatric Patients

Stefan Bogaerts  1   2 , Marinus Spreen  3 , Erik Masthoff  2 , Marija Jankovic  1   2
Affiliations

Longitudinal Network Structure and Changes of Clinical Risk and Protective Factors in a Nationwide Sample of Forensic Psychiatric Patients

Stefan Bogaerts et al. Int J Offender Ther Comp Criminol. 2020 Nov.

Abstract

In this study, we investigated network configurations of 14 Clinical risk and protective factors in a sample of 317 male forensic psychiatric patients across two time points: at the time of admission to the forensic psychiatric centers (T1) and at the time of unconditional release (T2). In terms of network structure, the strongest risk edge was between "hostility-violation of terms" at T1, and between "hostility-impulsivity" at T2. "Problem insight-crime responsibility" was the strongest protective edge, and "impulsivity-coping skills" was the strongest between-cluster edge, at both time points, respectively. In terms of strength centrality, "cooperation with treatment" had the highest strength centrality at both measurement occasions. This study expands the risk assessment field toward a better understanding of dynamic relationships between individual clinical risk and protective factors and points to the highly central risk and protective factors, which would be the best for future treatment targets.

Keywords: clinical protective factors; clinical risk factors; network analysis; the HKT-R; the good lives model; the risk–need–responsivity model.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Network structure of clinical risk and protective factors at admission (T1) and discharge (T2). Note. Orange circles refer to protective factors and blue circles refer to risk factors. Green lines indicate positive associations and red lines indicate negative associations. The thicker the line, the stronger the association between two nodes is.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Strength centrality index at T1. Note. Strength centrality index is presented as standardized z score. The greater the z score, the more central the risk factor is.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Strength centrality index at T2. Note. Strength centrality index is presented as standardized z score. The greater the z score, the more central the risk factor is.
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