Premium
Injury and illness experience in victims of violence, with particular reference to DATES syndrome
Author(s) -
SHEPHERD JONATHAN P.
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
criminal behaviour and mental health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.63
H-Index - 54
eISSN - 1471-2857
pISSN - 0957-9664
DOI - 10.1002/cbm.1995.5.4.351
Subject(s) - criminal justice , injury prevention , argument (complex analysis) , psychiatry , suicide prevention , poison control , compensation (psychology) , human factors and ergonomics , psychology , occupational safety and health , medicine , economic justice , medical emergency , criminology , social psychology , political science , pathology , law
Injuries sustained in violence are both physical and psychological. These two major effects are often investigated and treated in isolation. The study of assaultive injury, as opposed to victims in the criminal justice system, has given new perspectives on precise cause, the role of alcohol, comparative psychological impact of assault and accidents and how violence is reported, recorded and investigated in the criminal justice system. It has also produced a new injury severity scale and means of calculating compensation awards. Discoveries emanating from this research provide a compelling argument for an integrated multi‐agency approach to adult violence, to optimise effectiveness of treatment, to bring hospitals into community crime prevention and to deal with the causes of injury. An integrated approach to research has led to the study of illness and injury experience prior to violence. In turn this has led to the realisation that antisocial behaviour probably gives rise to particular illnesses. DATES syndrome, which comprises drug abuse, assault, trauma and elective surgery, describes archetypal illness behaviour in the injured, but not necessarily in ‘victims’. Further work is necessary to look for differing illness experience between offenders and the injured and to correlate offending, illness and injury with psychological, behavioural and developmental variables.