Seattle University Collaborative Projects - International Academy of ...

Lydia Pomp, Stenden University and INTERVICT, Tilburg Law School, Tilburg University(lydia.pomp@stenden.com)Little is known about the social network dynamics of forensic psychiatric patients. Suchinformation is of great importance for risk assessment and management. A change in socialcircumstances may cause behavioural changes that affect the risk of recidivism. Thispresentation compares the social networks of forensic psychiatric patients at the time of theiroffenses with these networks during treatment. Thirty-six inpatients were interviewed using aForensic Social Network Analysis (FSNA) questionnaire. The FSNA is an instrument tosystematically chart the relationships and personal networks of forensic psychiatric patients inthe context of their individual risk behaviour. During the two time frames, various social networkcharacteristics were analyzed. We found significant differences between the two time points;after a period of incarceration, there was a decrease in network size and a decrease in the numberof social supporters, stressful relationships and network members with potential risk factors.These findings are important to assess the influence of social resources on a successfullyreintegration of forensic psychiatric patients into the community. Because of the dynamic natureof social networks and their influence on rehabilitation, forensic psychiatric professionals need tocheck frequently if there are significant changes in the patient’s network.Music Therapy within Forensic PsychiatryLaurien Hakvoort, Tilburg University & ArtEZ Conservatorium, the Netherlands(L.Hakvoort@ArtEZ.nl)A cognitive understanding of factors contributing to an offence alone is not enough to preventrelapse. There are a number of contextual factors that contribute to violence. A patient has toexperience his lack of specific skills, experience that he overestimates his ability to handlesituations, or acts differently under factors like stress (Bouman, De Ruiter & Schene, 2003).Subsequently, the patient has to practice and train newly acquired skills in order to master theseskills and apply them in real-life situations. During multidisciplinary treatment, including musictherapy, many contextual factors receive attention in different contexts. Just like the majority ofthe treatment programs within international forensic psychiatry, music therapy focuses on overtbehavior and is assumed to affect a patient’s (re)actions in a well-defined and structured situation(Codding, 2002; Smeijsters & Cleven, 2004). Due to its nature of evoking basic emotional,cognitive, behavioral and neurological reactions in people, music therapy can be an appropriatetool to evoke emotional, cognitive, neurological and behavioral reactions (Gabrielson, 2010;Juslin, Liljeström, Västfjäll & Lundqvist, 2010; Peretz, 2010; Sloboda & Juslin, 2010; Thaut,2005). To explore whether it is possible to put some clinical evidence on these theoretical claimsof music therapy effectivity within forensic psychiatry, a number of explorative studies wereexecuted within four different forensic psychiatric clinics in the Netherlands with a total of fivecredentialed music therapists. This presentation focuses on a couple of these studies to explorewhether and what kind of behavioural change of forensic psychiatric patients can be influenced355