Purpose Self-injury is common in forensic psychiatric settings. Recent research offers some insights into the functions and management of self-injurious behaviour but generally focusses on either the experiences of staff or patients. This study aims to explore the experiences of both staff and patients with non-suicidal self-injury in a Dutch forensic psychiatric hospital. Design/methodology/approach In total, 6 patients and 11 staff members were interviewed about the functions they ascribe to self-injurious behaviour, the emotional experience provoked by this behaviour and the management of self-injurious behaviour. The interviews were transcribed and analysed using a thematic analysis. Findings Four main themes resulted from the analysis: functions; emotional distancing; patient needs; and management. Overall, findings illustrate that staff reports limited knowledge of the different functions of self-injury. To circumvent potential automatic stereotypical judgement, staff should proactively engage in conversation about this topic with their patients. In managing self-injurious behaviour, clarity and uniformity among staff members should be promoted, and collaboration between the staff and patients is desirable. Staff recognised the potential benefit of a management guideline. Staff may find detached coping strategies to be effective but should be vigilant to not let this evolve into excessive detachment. Practical implications Increased knowledge and awareness of self-injury functions among staff can allow for better understanding and evaluation of self-injury incidents. Circumvention of automatic, stereotypical judgement of self-injurious behaviour is warranted, and more accessible explanations of the variety of functions of self-injury should be used. More proactive engagement in conversations about functions of self-injury by staff, can facilitate this. Detached coping can help staff to remain resilient in their job, but requires vigilance to prevent this from turning into excessive detachment. Clarity and uniformity among staff when managing self-injury incidents is considered beneficial by both patients and staff. A guideline may facilitate this. When imposing restrictions on patients, staff should strive to establish collaboration with the patient in determining the course of action and ensure the restriction is temporary. Originality/value The impact of self-injurious behaviour on all those involved can be enormous. More research is needed into experiences of both patients and staff members regarding the impact, motivations, precipitants and functions of self-injurious behaviour, and effective treatment of it.
LINK
Since late 2020, all district courts and courts of appeal in the Netherlands have internal forensic support in the form of “forensic advisers.” This position was created in 2012 and resulted from the efforts made to expand knowledge of the forensic sciences within the inquisitorial Dutch criminal justice system. Forensic advisers are generalists and support judges in all matters concerning forensic science, for example, ensuring the logically correct interpretation of evidence, assessing the relevant expertise of forensic experts, and helping to avoid statistical fallacies. In this article, we discuss the origins of the position, the activities performed, and both positive and critical remarks about the position in the literature. Extensive attention is paid to the boundaries of the role and of the advice that is offered. We conclude that the forensic adviser has strengthened the forensic science expertise within the Dutch judiciary and we give recommendations for a more robust anchoring of this expertise.
Forensic reports use various types of conclusions, such as a categorical (CAT) conclusion or a likelihood ratio (LR). In order to correctly assess the evidence, users of forensic reports need to understand the conclusion and its evidential strength. The aim of this paper is to study the interpretation of the evidential strength of forensic conclusions by criminal justice professionals. In an online questionnaire 269 professionals assessed 768 reports on fingerprint examination and answered questions that measured self-proclaimed and actual understanding of the reports and conclusions. The reports entailed CAT, verbal LR and numerical LR conclusions with low or high evidential strength and were assessed by crime scene investigators, police detectives, public prosecutors, criminal lawyers, and judges. The results show that about a quarter of all questions measuring actual understanding of the reports were answered incorrectly. The CAT conclusion was best understood for the weak conclusions, the three strong conclusions were all assessed similarly. The weak CAT conclusion correctly emphasizes the uncertainty of any conclusion type used. However, most participants underestimated the strength of this weak CAT conclusion compared to the other weak conclusion types. Looking at the self-proclaimed understanding of all professionals, they in general overestimated their actual understanding of all conclusion types.
Dit lectorenplatform richt zich specifiek op vakoverstijgend onderwijs op het snijvlak van kunst, wetenschap en technologie. Deelnemers aan het lectorenplatform beschouwen de opbloeiende, interdisciplinaire praktijken van wetenschappers en kunstenaars als een inspiratiebron voor de vernieuwing van het funderend en hoger onderwijs. Om deze vernieuwing te realiseren moeten vanuit verschillende vakgebieden hands-on-ervaringen en onderzoekservaringen gecombineerd worden. Hierdoor komen leerlingen en studenten vanuit verschillende kennisdomeinen in samenwerking tot nieuwe manieren van leren en probleemoplossen. De ambitie van dit platform is om praktijkbeoefenaars, wetenschappers en docenten uit verschillende sectoren en disciplines bijeen te brengen. De NWA-route ‘Kunst: onderzoek en innovatie in de 21ste eeuw’ roept nadrukkelijk op tot investering in dergelijke platformen: “Het primair vernieuwende in deze route is dat partijen uit het kunstendomein: kunstenaars en ontwerpers, de sociale, geestes‐ en natuurwetenschappen, het kunstvakonderwijs, culturele bedrijven en de creatieve industrie zich met elkaar verbinden en inzetten op een gezamenlijke onderzoeksagenda. [...]" (Borgdorff, et al., 2016, p. 3). In het lectorenplatform staat niet alleen vakintegratie centraal, maar draait het ook om een actualisering van de leerinhouden van de kunst- en bètavakken: kunst kan heel analytisch zijn en bèta creatief, en kunst en bèta kunnen elkaar in onderlinge interactie versterken. Het lectorenplatform wil dus ook bestaande ideeën en beeldvorming rond kunsteducatie en wetenschap-/techniekonderwijs ter discussie stellen, en daarmee een impuls geven aan curriculumvernieuwing: van funderend tot beroepsonderwijs. Om onderzoek naar onderwijs op het snijvlak van kunst, wetenschap en technologie te bevorderen en binnen verschillende sectoren dit onderzoek op de agenda te zetten, richt het platform zich op drie themalijnen die aan de basis van de onderzoeksagenda staan: (1) professionele kunst- en ontwerppraktijken, (2) funderend onderwijs en (3) beroepsonderwijs. De themalijnen vormen de leidraad voor te initiëren onderzoek en activiteiten als het opzetten van een thematische online database met good practices en de organisatie van designathons waarin deelnemers uit verschillende disciplines de interdisciplinaire praktijk actief beleven.
