The Female Additional Manual (FAM) is a recently developed addition to the HCR-20 for assessing risk for violence in women. While women still represent a minority of the forensic psychiatric and prison population, worldwide the number of women committing violent crimes has increased steadily over the past two decades. Several risk factors for violent behavior in women differ substantially from those in men. Mental health professionals have recognized these differences and have expressed the need for more specific guidelines for risk assessment in women. Assessment of gender-sensitive risk factors is vital for accurate assessment and management of women’s violence risk. Despite the great advances in risk assessment over the past decades, very few tools have been developed specifically for the assessment of violence risk in females.
The FAM contains nine specific risk factors for women as well as additional guidelines to five HCR-20 items. The aim of the FAM is to provide mental health professionals with a comprehensive violence risk assessment tool that offers concrete guidelines for risk management in women. Preliminary findings of a prospective study with the FAM in Dutch forensic psychiatry show good results for the interrater reliability and predictive validity for incidents of violence. Future research will have to consolidate these findings and further demonstrate the value of the FAM.
The FAM was developed by Vivienne de Vogel, Michiel de Vries Robbé (both authors of the SAPROF for the assessment of protective factors), Willemijn van Kalmthout and Caroline Place.
