Preventing violent crime
Understanding and preventing violent crime in high-risk individuals – a mixed-methods approach.
The project is a competence and collaboration project (CCP) funded by the Norwegian Research Council for four years (2023-2027). Representatives from five collaborating partners are involved in the project: Oslo University Hospital, the University of Oslo, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, the Oslo Police District, and the Correctional Service. The main objective is to provide updated empirical knowledge about the development of violence risk over time and identify areas where cooperation between mental health services, police, and correctional services can be strengthened to better prevent violence among severely mentally ill individuals.
Active collaboration between researchers and practitioners is an essential characteristic of this project type, aiming to ensure that the generated knowledge meets the needs of practitioners in the field. The project has a broadly composed advisory group consisting of internationally leading researchers in criminology, law, and psychiatric epidemiology, as well as experienced representatives of the management level from the involved practice fields.
Violence committed by severely mentally ill individuals constitutes a small proportion of the violence committed in a society. However, it still represents a significant societal challenge, generating much attention and calls for more effective prevention and better care for both individual patients and the surrounding environment. Police, correctional services, and mental health services share responsibility for preventing violence among individuals with severe mental illness. The three sectors increasingly express that the problems are growing in scope or severity and that there is a failure in coordination and collaboration between the services involved. Prisons experience an increasing proportion of mentally ill inmates who harm themselves or others and whom they do not have sufficient resources to manage. The police report an increase in their workload related to individuals with severe mental illness and potential for violence. Also, the proportion of patients convicted to mandatory mental health treatment is increasing. What are the factors contributing to this development? There are several hypotheses about possible mechanisms but little empirical knowledge to illustrate development over time and show if and how development of crime and illness are related. What are early signs of severe trajectories, and which conditions are protective?
The main objective of PreVio is to contribute with updated empirical knowledge about the development of violence risk over time and identify areas where cooperation between specialized mental health services, police, and corrections can be strengthened for better prevention of violence among severely mentally ill individuals.
PreVio employs a multidisciplinary mixed-methods approach where quantitative data from two existing datasets are combined with a visual method for qualitative exploration of individual cases. The data sources included in the project are:
The project is funded by the Research Council of Norway (SAMRISK-2) (project number 341355) for the period 2023-2027.
Longitudinal trajectories to violent crime
Work Package in the PreVio project focuses on subgoals 1 and 2:
Objective 1: Investigate changes in violent crime over time according to legislative revisions to the penal code and the mental health law.
Objective 2: Identify subgroups and developmental trajectories through the life course.
Sociodemographic and psychological risk and protective factors for violence among individuals with mental illness
Work Package 2 in the PreVio project focuses on goal 3:
Investigate the effect of sociodemographic and psychological risk and protective factors for violence among individuals with mental illness.
Life history plots - linking situations and events at the individual level
Work Package 3 in the PreVio project focuses on subgoal 4:
Applying visual methods to study individual cases and identify connections between events and situations at the individual level
Cross-disciplinary collaborative knowledge exchange
Work Package 4 in the PreVio project focuses on goal 5:
Establishing cross-sectoral arenas for knowledge exchange and communication.
OSLO UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL
Christine Friestad
Jaroslav Rokicki
Laoura Ziaka
Esben Heilskov
Ruth Vieler
NORWEGIAN INSTITUTON OF PUBLIC HEALTH (NIPH)
Martin Steen Tesli
UNIVERSITY OF OSLO
Unn Kristin Haukvik
NORWEGIAN CORRECTIONAL SERVICES
Egil-Ivar Gabrielsen (Trondheim fengsel)
Tonje Sandal (Ila fengsles- og forvaringsanstalt)
Doris Bakken (Bredtveit fengsels- og forvaringsanstalt)
POLICE
Kjetil Denvik
ADVISORY GROUP MEMBERS
Suraj Tapa, Head of reseach at the Department of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo universitetssykehus HF
Avdelingsdirektør Heidi Bottolfs, Kriminalomsorgsdirektoratet
Department director Anne Reneflot, Folkehelsa
Seksjonsleder Pål-Gunnar Førsund, Oslo politidistrikt
Fag- og kvalitetsleder Cecilie Bhandari Hartberg, Klinikk PHA, Oslo universitetssykehus HF
Professor Linda Gröning, Universitetet i Bergen
Professor Torbjørn Skardhamar, Universitetet i Oslo
Professor Seena Fazel, University of Oxford (UK)
Professor Giovanni de Girolamo, University of Milan (Italy)
Seniorforsker Danielle Arlanda Harris, Griffith University (Australia)
Professor Birgit Völlm, University of Rostock (Germany)
