1,721,000 research outputs found
Freedom of will by disturbances of the sexual preference Comment to the considerations of Peer Briken
No full textFreedom of will by disturbances of the sexual preference Comment to the considerations of Peer Briken
No full textUse of virtual reality in forensic psychiatry
No full textFor more than 20 years virtual realities (VR) have been successfully used in the assessment and treatment of psychiatric disorders. The most important advantages of VR are the high ecological validity of virtual environments, the entire controllability of virtual stimuli in the virtual environment and the capability to induce the sensation of being in the virtual environment instead of the physical environment. VRs provide the opportunity to face the user with stimuli and situations which are not available or too risky in reality. Despite these advantages VR-based applications have not yet been applied in forensic psychiatry. On the basis of an overview of the recent state-of-the-art in VR-based applications in general psychiatry, the article demonstrates the advantages and possibilities of VR-based applications in forensic psychiatry. Up to now only preliminary studies regarding the VR-based assessment of pedophilic interests exist. These studies demonstrate the potential of ecologically valid VR-based applications for the assessment of forensically relevant disorders. One of the most important advantages is the possibility of VR to assess the behavior of forensic inpatients in crime-related situations without endangering others. This provides completely new possibilities not only regarding the assessment but also for the treatment of forensic inpatients. Before utilizing these possibilities in the clinical practice exhaustive research and development will be necessary. Given the high potential of VR-based applications, this effort would be worth it
Bildgebende Befunde bei Sexualstraftätern
No full textSexualstraftaten sind heterogen motiviert. Verstärkt in jüngerer Zeit wurden neurobiologische Veränderungen auch bei Sexualstraftätern untersucht. Dabei fanden sich strukturelle und funktionelle Veränderungen in kortikalen und subkortikalen Hirnarealen bei verschiedenen Tätergruppen. Es wird eine Übersicht über die Literatur zu neurobiologischen Veränderungen bei Sexualstraftätern gegeben. Insbesondere wird die Notwendigkeit einer differenziert auch neurobiologisch fundierten Diagnostik hervorgehoben
How can psychophysiological techniques contribute to diagnosis and prognosis using pedophilia as an example?
No full textIn der 5. Auflage des Diagnostischen und Statistischen Manuals psychischer Störungen (DSM-5) werden psychophysiologische Verfahren als diagnostische Marker bei der Pädophilie eingeführt. Das DSM-5 ist als statistisches und diagnostisches Manual nicht zur Beantwortung rechtlicher Fragen konzipiert. Aus einer forensisch-psychiatrischen Perspektive aktualisiert der Verweis auf diese Techniken dennoch die Frage, ob und wie psychophysiologische Ansätze zur Beantwortung rechtlicher Fragestellungen genutzt bzw. wie diese in die etablierte Begutachtungsmethodik integriert werden können. Dies wird im Folgenden am Beispiel der Pädophilie hinsichtlich der Diagnostik, der Verhaltensinhibition sowie der Prognose diskutiert.In the fifth edition of the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM-5) psychophysiological procedures are included as diagnostic markers for pedophilia. The DSM-5 as a statistical and diagnostic manual is not concipated for answering legal questions; however, from a forensic psychiatric perspective the reference to these techniques updates the question whether and how psychophysiological approaches can be used to answer legal questions and how they can be integrated into established assessment methodologies. These points are discussed in this article with respect to diagnostics, behavioral inhibition and prognosis using pedophilia as an example
Neurobiological research on pedophilia - results and their consequences for the assessment of pedophilic offenders
No full textThe difficulty with the assessment of pedophilic offenders is in the valid assessment of a pedophilic interest. The current methods lack of validity and reliability. In the last decade the amount of neurobiological investigations in pedophilia accelerates, however, the results are very heterogeneous. Relevant results for the assessment of pedophilia do not exist yet. In addition a verification of the validity and reliability of the used designs is absent. It is the challenge of the neurobiological forensic research to examine carefully the potential in assessing pedophilic offenders
Can We Measure Sexual Interest in Pedophiles Using a Sexual Distractor Task?
No full textIndirect measures of deviant sexual interest have yielded interesting and promising in the field of pedophilicinterest. However, further research is needed. A lot of indirect measures are still at the developmental stageregarding clinical application. They do not reach appropriate psychometric criteria or are not yet sufficiently tested forsusceptibility to manipulation or deception. Furthermore, for some paradigms, the exact mechanisms underlying theattentional processes are still under discussion. This study aimed to measure sexual interest under cognitive load.With this challenging active task subject’s possibility to manipulate their response to the sexual stimuli should belower than in easier tasks and in passive designs. Twenty-two pedophiles, seven forensic control subjects and 50healthy men performed cognitive tasks. Simultaneously, sexually relevant and sexually non-relevant distractors werepresented. Meanwhile, their cognitive performance and eye movements were assessed.As expected healthy subjects showed a certain impairment of cognitive performance when sexually relevantdistractors were presented to them. They took significantly more time to look at sexual adult distractors than atsexual child distractors. In contrast, both forensic groups performed much poorer than the healthy control groupwithout specificity for certain sexual distractors. While forensic control subjects tended to view adult stimuli longerthan those of children, no differences were found for pedophiles. The age preference index for the fixation timedifferentiated moderately between pedophiles and non-pedophiles.Our design worked well with healthy subjects. Further studies should examine if an individual adaptation of thetask difficulty could help to find the expected cognitive performance impairments of pedophiles and forensic subjectswhen they are presented with certain distractor categories
An Open Source Virtual Reality Training Framework for the Criminal Justice System
No full textWe developed an open-source training framework to practice conversation skills in a controlled and immersive virtual reality (VR) environment. Virtual characters with different biographies were developed with which a conversation using natural language is possible. The virtual characters integrate a dialog management system (ChatScript) to provide different biographical memories. Natural language processing for the German language is integrated by using Kaldi, an open-source speech recognition toolkit. As the framework allows for interchangeable content there are many different possible application cases to apply within the criminal justice system. The VR frameworks code is available under an open-source license. In this article, an overview of the framework’s functionality is given as well as an outlook on possible areas of application. Statements about user acceptance and usability cannot yet be made, as relevant data have first to be gathered through a concrete application case.Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung https://doi.org/10.13039/50110000234
Forensic assessment Are biological facts useful?
No full textPrognoses in forensic psychiatry are demanded and delivered on a daily basis. Given the multitude of different causes, it is not surprising that prognostic questions also widely differ. To predict the likelihood of criminal re-offences, risk checklists are used; biological parameters are rarely considered. This text outlines exemplary (neuro-)biological investigations and methods and their relevance to the diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric disturbances. Their possible relevance with regard to forensic psychiatric prognoses is also discussed. It is suggested that biological facts must be investigated as additional predictors
Forensic assessment Are biological facts useful?
No full textPrognoses in forensic psychiatry are demanded and delivered on a daily basis. Given the multitude of different causes, it is not surprising that prognostic questions also widely differ. To predict the likelihood of criminal re-offences, risk checklists are used; biological parameters are rarely considered. This text outlines exemplary (neuro-)biological investigations and methods and their relevance to the diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric disturbances. Their possible relevance with regard to forensic psychiatric prognoses is also discussed. It is suggested that biological facts must be investigated as additional predictors
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