ABSTRACT
This chapter is based on the scientist-practitioner model of training in clinical psychology. Violence risk assessment entails making clinical decisions that, more often than not, can have important consequences. The chapter examines a conceptual foundation based on the scientist-practitioner model of clinical psychology, and discusses how it may apply to the contemporary science and practice of violence risk assessment. It illustrates how the clinical practice of violence risk assessment ought to be informed by research, and how research also should be responsive to the realities of clinical practice. Given that violence is at the core of risk assessment, it is perhaps surprising that its definition has received little attention in risk assessment research compared to other facets of this research. The use of an empirically based guide or aide-memoire to structure the clinical assessment is forwarded as an appropriate and comprehensive violence risk assessment model.
