The NATO Advanced Study Institute on the Prevention of Crime and Violence Among the Mentally III was held in May 1999 in Tuscany, Italy. Participants from 15 countries attended. Since care for persons with mental illness (schizophrenia, major depression, bipolar disorder, delusional disorder, atypical psychoses) has been deinstitutionalized, some persons with these disorders are committing crimes and serious violence. Consequently, societies around the world are confronted with a new challenge: to provide mental health care and social services to mentally ill persons in a humane way that will prevent illegal behaviours. Research in this field has been dominated by investigations designed to improve clinicians' accuracy in predicting violent behaviours, with little attention focused on the organization and implemen tation of treatments. The premise of the Advanced Study Institute was that treatments must have em pirically proven efficacy. Both professional ethics and public accountability require empirical evidence that each treatment will alleviate the problem that it targets. However, despite the fact that Western industrial societies provide treatment for mentally ill persons who have offended, there is a very limited base of knowledge on what constitutes effective treatment and how such treatments should be organized and delivered. The Advanced Study Institute was an attempt to stimulate and encour age research that will extend this knowledge base. The goals were to review what is known about mentally ill offenders and about effective treatments for them, and to provide a framework for the orientation of future investigations designed to improve treatment efficacy.

In recent years there has been a significant increase in crime among persons suffering from major mental disorders. The authors attempt to describe the criminality of the mentally ill and to identify the complex chain of factors which cause it. As part of their analysis they examine a unique group of 15,117 persons born in Stockholm who were studied from prenatal development to the age of thirty. Their findings make a valuable contribution to ongoing debates on mental health and criminal justice policy and practice.

In recent years it has become apparent that mentally ill people are at increased risk of committing crimes of violence. Most writing and research about crime and mental disorder has focused necessarily on the immediate problems which confront clinicians and law makers - assessing and managing the future risk of violence. In this important new book the authors attempt to step back from these immediate preoccupations and describe the criminality of the mentally ill and try to identify the complex chain of factors which cause it. As part of their analysis they examine a unique cohort composed of 15,117 persons born in Stockholm who were studied from pregnancy to the age of thirty. While they conclude that we still do not understand exactly how and why persons with major mental disorders commit crimes, their findings make a valuable contribution to ongoing debates on mental health and criminal justice policy and practice.

The NATO Advanced Study Institute on the Prevention of Crime and Violence Among the Mentally III was held in May 1999 in Tuscany, Italy. Participants from 15 countries attended. Since care for persons with mental illness (schizophrenia, major depression, bipolar disorder, delusional disorder, atypical psychoses) has been deinstitutionalized, some persons with these disorders are committing crimes and serious violence. Consequently, societies around the world are confronted with a new challenge: to provide mental health care and social services to mentally ill persons in a humane way that will prevent illegal behaviours. Research in this field has been dominated by investigations designed to improve clinicians' accuracy in predicting violent behaviours, with little attention focused on the organization and implemen tation of treatments. The premise of the Advanced Study Institute was that treatments must have em pirically proven efficacy. Both professional ethics and public accountability require empirical evidence that each treatment will alleviate the problem that it targets. However, despite the fact that Western industrial societies provide treatment for mentally ill persons who have offended, there is a very limited base of knowledge on what constitutes effective treatment and how such treatments should be organized and delivered. The Advanced Study Institute was an attempt to stimulate and encour age research that will extend this knowledge base. The goals were to review what is known about mentally ill offenders and about effective treatments for them, and to provide a framework for the orientation of future investigations designed to improve treatment efficacy."

In recent years, there has been an explosion of knowledge concerning the developmental processes that lead to persistent violent offending, and in particular, the neurobiological determinants. However, the field of violence has suffered from a divide between basic laboratory neuroscience and clinical science. Hence, this new knowledge has hithero had little impact on government policies, prevention programmes, and on the rehabilition of offenders.
This book embraces a translational approach to treating the problem of violent offending. It highlights some of the key scientific challenges, as well as the dilemmas and difficulties in the translation of scientific findings (whether basic or clinical) into policy and practice applications. Using findings derived from studies in molecular genetics and brain imaging, it provides the latest field of knowledge about violent offending and how to treat and prevent this major problem. The book starts by examining what we know about the development of persistent violent offenders and the factors and mechanisms thought to underlie their pattern of aggressive behaviour. Subsequent chapters describe studies looking at the cognitive and neural functioning of persistent violent offenders and the kind of children at risk of becoming violent offenders. The chapters in the latter part of the volume review the effectiveness of rehabilitation programmes for adult violent offenders. The book ends by focusing on the estblishment of effective interventions for children at risk of becoming violent offenders and for mothers who are at risk of having at-risk children.
Throuhgout, the volume emphasizes the need to consider both biological and non-biological factors as promoters of violence. For neuroscientists, criminologists, psychologists, and psychiatrists, this state of the art volume demonstrates just what can be achieved by integrating neuroscience with clinical practice, and presents a way forward for the development of effective treatments for persistent violent offending.