Violence involving people with mental illness is a major topic of public concern. Although many studies have described the extent of violence, no studies describe the violent incidents themselves. How do they start? What are the motives of the parties? What feelings accompany different stages of the incidents? Is the behavior of the individual with mental illness different than that of the other party?
These and related questions have been studied largely by clinical interviews or in laboratory settings. This paper reports a new method of collecting data on such incidents - in depth semi-structured interviews with both parties to the incident which are integrated into a uniform account using a series of coding rules - and discusses its strengths and weaknesses compared to laboratory studies. For most incidents, the interviews produce two quite detailed and specific accounts of the events leading up to and following the violence. In many of these accounts, there is considerable agreement between the two parties as to the specific verbal and physical behaviors. Indeed, looking at these incidents illustrate some of the difficulties with many laboratory studies including: artificial isolation of the incident to a limited group of people all of whom play roughly equivalent roles, an artificial beginning point and, of course, no real violence. On the other hand, the interview method lacks direct observation, is contaminated by the “storyness” of the account and requires arbitrary coding decisions.
Learning Objectives: 1. Describe the clinical advantages of understanding violent incidents 2. Evaluate the limitations of different methods of studying violent incidents 3. Assess the value of interviews with subjects who have been involved in violent incidents
Keywords: Violence, Methodology
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.