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Damage: Trauma and violence in a sample of women referred to a forensic service
Author(s) -
Adshead Gwen
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
behavioral sciences and the law
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.649
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1099-0798
pISSN - 0735-3936
DOI - 10.1002/bsl.2370120304
Subject(s) - aggression , harm , psychiatry , psychology , poison control , sexual abuse , suicide prevention , injury prevention , human factors and ergonomics , clinical psychology , medicine , medical emergency , social psychology
Although there is evidence of a link between experienced trauma and later violence, most discussion of the long‐term effects of trauma do no examine aggression and violence in any detail. This article presents a pilot study of 16 women referred to the department of Forensic Psychiatry at St George's Hospital, between 1987 and 1993. The cases were selected at random, although most were known personally to the author. The study attempts to draw out the links among sexual abuse in childhood, deliberate self‐harm, dangerous behavior, and specifically danger to health care professionals. The concept of complex posttraumatic stress disorder is discussed in relation to both a history of sexual and physical abuse in childhood and later dangerous behavior.