Juliane Gerth

• Dr. rer. nat.
• Senior Researcher at Office of Corrections and Rehabilitation of the Canton of Zurich, Switzerland

Zusammenfassung: Antisemitismus ist eine historisch tief verankerte Form der Feindseligkeit gegenüber Jüdinnen und Juden, die aktuell wieder mit einer stark zunehmenden Gewaltbereitschaft einhergeht. Die erheblichen psychischen Auswirkungen von Antisemitismus sind vielfältig und werden durch wiederholte, häufig mehrdimensionale Diskriminierung und...

Decision-making processes are vulnerable to cognitive biases like hindsight bias, with particularly fateful consequences in forensic contexts. However, while debiasing strategies have been effective in various areas, their impact in forensics is underexplored. We investigated hindsight bias and a simple awareness-based debiasing strategy in novices...

Introduction Research has established that justice-involved individuals experience significant mental health problems. However, mental healthcare in correctional settings is often not sufficiently accessible to meet the demand. Hence, to improve the availability of mental healthcare services, especially for pre-trial detainees, the first Swiss on-s...

Although the validity of forensic risk assessment has been in the focus of academic research in forensic mental health for the last 40 to 50 years, the quality of such assessments is still only moderately satisfactory on average. On one hand, there have been numerous attempts to improve the quality of assessments by developing new instruments or re...

Jugendliche und junge Erwachsene sind für einen beträchtlichen Teil aller Straftaten verantwortlich. So lag im Jahr 2017 der prozentuale Anteil der beschuldigten Personen unter 25 Jahren in der Schweiz bei 32.1% und in Deutschland bei 33.2%. Darüber hinaus ist die Rückfallrate junger Straftäter sehr hoch. So zeigte sich in einer Untersuchung aus de...

Zusammenfassung Das Ziel einer therapeutischen Maßnahme bei Straftätern ist gemäß Gesetzesgrundlage die Reduktion der Gefahr erneuter „erheblicher rechtswidriger Taten“ (§§ 63 und 64 StGB, Deutschland) bzw. mit dem „Zustand des Täters in Zusammenhang stehender Taten“ (Art. 59 und 63 bzw. Art. 60 für Abhängigkeiten StGB, Schweiz). Um dieses Ziel zu...

This study evaluated the validity of the Static-99 and Static-99R in assessing sexual recidivism in Switzerland, based on a sample of 142 male sex offenders. Both tools showed predictive validity, but the Static-99R had better discrimination (OR = 1.82, AUC = .81) and calibration (Brier = .078, P/E = 0.96) than the Static-99. A cut score of four on...

The Sexual Sadism Scale (SeSaS) was developed to assist in the diagnosis of sexual sadism, and it revealed adequate psychometric properties in prior research. This study cross validated the SeSaS in Switzerland using a sample of 179 male sex offenders. Specifically, the SeSaS conformed to a Mokken model of double monotonicity (scalability coefficie...

Purpose Relapse prevention is an important goal in correctional settings. Although there is strong evidence for the effectiveness of certain treatment programs for juvenile offenders, those for adults lack such evidence. This study evaluated the effectiveness of a risk–need–responsivity (RNR)‐based intervention. Methods A quasi‐experimental, obser...

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a major public health issue; worldwide, almost 1 in 3 women is affected. Police involvement in IPV cases has substantially increased because of "proarrest" and "procharging" policies and the enforcement of laws protecting victims of domestic violence. In the course of these changes, several front-line instruments...

The aim of the present study was to investigate the performance of the Dynamic Risk Analysis System (DyRiAS) in assessing the risk of lethal and potentially lethal intimate partner violence (IPV) in the Canton of Zurich, Switzerland. Police records were used to retrospectively administer the DyRiAS for 171 IPV o↵enders processed by the municipal po...

On average one third of all women are victimised by intimate partner violence at least once in their life. Many women are affected repeatedly. To efficiently reduce the risk of repeated violence a reliable and valid risk assessment is needed. To date several risk assessment tools have been published in the field of intimate partner violence. There...

IntroductionThe performance of violence risk assessment instruments can be primarily investigated by analysing two psychometric properties: discrimination and calibration. Although many studies have examined the discrimination capacity of the Violence Risk Appraisal Guide (VRAG) and other actuarial risk assessment tools, few have evaluated how well...

An actuarial risk assessment instrument can be considered valid if independent investigations using novel samples can replicate the findings of the instrument's development study. In order for a study to qualify as a replication, it has to adhere to the methodological protocol of the development study with respect to key design characteristics, as...

Introduction: The performance of violence risk assessment instruments can be primarily investigated by analysing two psychometric properties: discrimination and calibration. Although many studies have examined the discrimination capacity of the Violence Risk Appraisal Guide (VRAG) and other actuarial risk assessment tools, few have evaluated how we...

Introduction: The performance of violence risk assessment instruments can be primarily investigated by analysing two psychometric properties: discrimination and calibration. Although many studies have examined the discrimination capacity of the Violence Risk Appraisal Guide (VRAG) and other actuarial risk assessment tools, few have evaluated how we...

Drohungen kündigen (schwere) Gewaltdelikte an. Wenngleich empirische Untersuchungen auf einen Zusammenhang zwischen Drohungen und Gewalttätigkeit hinweisen, ist der prädiktive Wert einer Dro- hung für die Begehung von Gewaltdelikten vergleichsweise gering. Um die Ausführungsgefahr von Dro- hungen beurteilen zu können, müssen weitere risikorelevante...

Risikobeurteilungen bei Straftätern sollten anhand eines standardisierten Vorgehens vorgenommen werden. Am besten eignen sich dafür mechanische Instrumente, die eine eindeutige Aussage zur Rück- fallwahrscheinlichkeit ermöglichen. Für die Anwendung in der Praxis stehen eine Reihe mechanischer Instrumente zur Verfügung. Nachfolgend werden etablierte...

Jugendliche Gewalt- und Sexualstraftäter stehen am Beginn einer etwaigen kriminellen Karriere. Lässt sich durch therapeutische Interventionen das Rückfallrisiko langfristig reduzieren, ist eine Behandlung dieser Straftätergruppe für die Gesellschaft sowohl im Hinblick auf Opferprävention als auch unter ökonomischen Gesichtspunkten hocheffektiv. Unt...

Nur ein kleiner Prozentsatz der Bevölkerung wird jemals für ein Gewalt- oder Sexualdelikt verurteilt. Insbesondere Kohortenstudien konnten etwas Klarheit darüber schaffen, welche Faktoren das Risiko zur Begehung von Gewalt- und Sexualdelikten erhöhen. Dabei sind Risikofaktoren für Erstdelinquenz in der Allgemeinbevölkerung von Risikofaktoren für er...

In the aftermath of the Tsunami disaster in 2004, an online psychological self-assessment (ONSET) was developed and made available by the University of Zurich in order to provide an online screening instrument for Tsunami victims to test if they were traumatized and in need of mental health care. The objective of the study was to report the lessons...

In North America, the use of actuarial instruments is considered to be state of the art in the assessment of offender recidivism risk. One of these instruments is the "Sex Offender Risk Appraisal Guide" (SORAG), which was developed specifically for the use in sex offender risk assessment. The present review investigates the current state of knowled...

When comparing different studies on prison violence, it must be taken into account that correctional facilities vary considerably among one another. Studies conducted in Switzerland have shown that every one inmate in four is violent at least once during incarceration. These violent acts differ in regard to manifestation and a specific characteriza...

Beim Vergleich verschiedener Studien über Gewalt im Strafvollzug ist zu berücksichtigen, dass sich Vollzugsin- stitutionen stark voneinander unter- scheiden. Studien aus der Schweiz er- gaben, dass etwa jeder vierte Insasse mindestens einmal während der Haft mit Gewalt auffällt. Dabei haben die Gewalthandlungen unterschiedliche Erscheinungsformen....