ABSTRACT
Interpersonal violence is a social concern that cuts across geographical, religious and racial boundaries. Preventing violence is desirable not only in terms of averting physical and emotional harm, but also because it constitutes a major international public health issue. The World Health Organisation estimated that in the year 2000 there were approximately 1.66 million deaths due directly to violence (e.g. Krug et al. 2002). The costs of violence can be observed from a monetary perspective as well; the dollar figure for consequences of violence to society (e.g. in terms of correctional and judicial costs, medical and mental health interventions for victims and perpetrators, absenteeism from work, police/fire services, etc.) has been estimated to be in the billions (e.g. Miller et al. 1996). A viable avenue for containing these human and financial costs is violence risk assessment. If conducted carefully, such assessments have the potential to evaluate and manage risk of future violence and thus can play a critical role in preventing violence (Douglas et al. 1999; Douglas and Kropp 2002).
