Predicting violent behavior: What can neuroscience add?

The ability to accurately predict violence and other forms of seriously antisocial behavior would provide important societal benefits, and there is substantial enthusiasm for the potential predictive accuracy of neuroimaging techniques. We review the current status of violence prediction using actuarial and clinical methods, and assess the current state of neuroprediction. We then outline a number of questions that need to be addressed by future studies of neuroprediction if they are to be successfully translated into public policy.

Development and Validation of a Brief Measure of Violent Thoughts: The Violent Ideations Scale (VIS)

Violent ideations (VIs) have potential significance across clinical, forensic, and research contexts. They feature in dominant theories of violence, are a candidate risk factor in violence prediction, and are a potential target for therapeutic intervention. Given this, there is a need for multi-item psychometrically supported measures of VIs. We report on the development and validation of the “Violent Ideations Scale” (VIS): a brief measure of VIs. In a normative sample of N = 1,276 older adolescents, we evaluated the dimensionality, sex invariance, concurrent validity, and discriminative power of the VIS. The VIS showed unidimensionality, minor measurement differences across males and females, correlated well with a preexisting measure of VIs and showed a strong relation to criminal violence. These features support the use of the VIS as a research tool and as a possible source of information regarding violence risk in clinical and forensic settings.