ABSTRACT
The aim of this chapter is to describe function analytic assessment approaches and provide instruction in techniques for research using functional analysis in applied forensic settings. It also introduces a novel application of functional analytic methodology, experimental functional analysis using offence paralleling behaviour, and describes a range of research tasks that are necessary for validation of this method and for functional analysis more generally. Before proceeding, it is important to note that function analytic assessment approaches are regularly used in forensic settings. There is, however, very little published research using this assessment approach in this context. This is partly because the idiographic approach is the most common application of functional analysis and researchers and clinicians rarely publish case studies. The scarcity of published research on functional analysis is also because there are very few well-validated methods available to develop and test functional analysis. A task for researchers is to remedy this problem by developing reliable and valid methods for conducting both idiographic and nomothetic functional analytic methods. This chapter will begin with a review of functional analysis, and then elucidate its application to offender assessment. An example of function analytic methodology that was developed and used to study aggression in psychiatric inpatients will then be described. Opportunities to use functional analysis and the need to consider experimental functional analyses are provided before the strengths and limitations of functional analysis are described.
