How do forensic inpatients ’ interpersonal sensitivity to dominance and perceptions of staff coercion impact upon anger and rates of aggression?

How do forensic inpatients’ interpersonal sensitivity to dominance and perceptions of staff coercion impact upon anger and rates of aggression? Jessica Holley, James Tapp, Simon Draycott The Journal of Forensic Practice, Vol. ahead-of-print, No. ahead-of-print, pp.- Coercive practices – which are used as means to manage violent/aggressive behaviour in secure forensic settings – have come under scrutiny in recent years due to their paradoxical effects on provoking further service user aggression and violence. Previous research has found relationships between increased service user aggression with both service users’ interpersonal styles and perceptions of staff coercion (i.e. staff limit setting). This paper aims to investigate whether forensic service users’ levels of interpersonal sensitivity to dominance increase levels of self-reported anger and rates of aggression towards staff through perceptions of staff coercion. In a cross-sectional quantitative study design, 70 service users were recruited from one high and two medium secure forensic hospitals. Standardised measures were completed by service users and recorded incident data was collected within the past year. Correlation and mediation analyses were run to investigate the relationship between study variables. A significant relationship was found between service users’ interpersonal sensitivity to dominance and self-reported rates of anger, where forensic service usersâ...
Source: Journal of Forensic Practice - Category: Forensic Medicine Authors: Source Type: research