Illuminating the dark side: Life story and formulation work to understand criminogenic capacities and human harmfulness

Abstract

The assessment of risk is a central component of forensic practice with clinicians regularly being required to undertake formal risk assessments using Structured Professional Judgment tools. While these tools guide practitioners to identify areas of concern, they do little to establish the function of risk factors or the context(s) that influenced the consolidation of harmful capacities. In this paper we argue for a compassionate approach to risk assessment that incorporates a functional analysis of the influence of learning experiences and promotes insight into the initial function of risks. We attempt to illustrate this process using case studies throughout.