Leen Cappon

• doctor of criminology
• Researcher at Psychiatrisch Centrum Sint-Jan-Baptist, Zelzate, Belgium

Purpose In Belgium, mentally ill offenders often spend extended periods in forensic psychiatric hospitals, where restrictive living conditions can affect their quality of life (QoL). QoL is a key factor in these settings, influencing both short- and long-term recidivism risks. Despite its significance, research on QoL in Belgian forensic psychiatry...

The effect of de-escalation training on aggression incidents and the use of restraints in females in forensic psychiatry De-escalation is recommended as the first response to potential aggression within forensic psychiatry. To imbed de-escalating techniques in daily clinical practice, education and training of the staff is essential. Various de-esc...

Protective factors are now commonly included in comprehensive risk assessment. This study concerns an initial validation of the new SAPROF-Extended Version (SAPROF-EV) pilot, containing modifications and additions to the original SAPROF. For 139 forensic psychiatric inpatients, assessment results with the SAPROF-EV pilot and HCR-20 V3 were compared...

Available research emphasizes the importance of getting a systematic overview of inpatient aggression in forensic psychiatric care. However, the same research does not focus on how systematic aggression registration should be introduced in clinical practice. To facilitate the use of systematic aggression registration instruments, it is very relevan...

Purpose Despite the rising number of females in forensic psychiatry, research about their characteristics remains limited and is currently lacking in Belgium. Optimizing knowledge about the characteristics of these women will lead to a better understanding of this specific group. Therefore, the aim of the study was to gain insight into the characte...

Previous research on juvenile judges' decision-making process has neglected the role of the different actors involved in judicial procedures. The decision can be considered as a result of information exchange between the different actors involved. The process of making a decision is equally important as the decision itself, especially when the deci...

De doelstelling van dit doctoraatsonderzoek was om de betekenissen gegeven aan de beslissingsprocessen van de jeugdrechters betreffende minderjarigen met een psychiatrische problematiek te analyseren en contextualiseren. Dit is gebeurd aan de hand van analyses van motiveringen en van interviews met de verschillende betrokken actoren. De bevindingen...

Voorgaand onderzoek over beslissingen genomen door de jeugdrechters heeft slechts beperkt aandacht besteed aan de perspectieven van minderjarigen en ouders. Niettemin krijgen vooral minderjarigen, maar ook hun ouders een duidelijke rol toegekend in beslissingen die hen aanbelangen op basis van artikel 5 en 12 van het VRK. Daarom wil deze bijdrage i...

This study examined (1) the information present in juvenile court records in Belgium (Flanders) and (2) whether there are differences in information between records that mention a mental disorder and those that do not. The file study sample included 107 court records, and we used a Pearson's chi-square test and a t-test to analyze the information w...

A discrepancy exists between the high prevalence of mental disorders at the juvenile court and the rare application of psychiatric measures. This raises questions on how the juvenile judges decide whether they should apply a psychiatric measure for minors with mental disorders or not. Since the minors in contact with the juvenile court have a right...

Objective: The purpose of this study is to provide an overview of the (strength of the) association between mental health aspects in juvenile offenders and the decision-making process of the juvenile judge. In particular, the presence of a mental disorder in the juvenile offender, the presence of a mental health report, and the mental health orien...