Comparison of HCR-20 scores in violent mentally disordered men and women: Gender differences and similarities

Retrospective risk assessments based on the HCR-20 violence risk assessment scheme were performed on 63 female patients and 85 male patients at two special forensic psychiatric hospitals. The aim was to compare risk factors for violence in mentally disordered women with their male counterparts, and to study to what extent the HCR-20, which is mainly based on research on men, can be used in a female forensic psychiatric population. The results show that the HCR-20 displays very similar risk factors for violence in women as in men, but the nature of violence is somewhat different between the sexes. Implications of the findings are discussed.