As
part of a psychiatric hospital operated by the largest province in
Canada, members of the Research Department study the
prevention, prediction, and explanation of human violence and
aggression. Our research samples include mentally disordered
offenders, sex offenders, psychopaths, criminal and violent
offenders, high school students, psychiatric clients, and adults
from different communities.
1. Click here to learn more about our work on violence risk
assessment (The Violence Risk Appraisal Guide and the Sex Offender
Risk Appraisal Guide).
The book, Violent
offenders: Appraising and managing risk, was published by
the American Psychological Association. The authors are Vernon
Quinsey, Grant Harris, Marnie Rice, and Catherine Cormier.
Its second edition was published in 2006.
2. Dr. Zoe Hilton has placed a summary of the brochure on
Violence in Schools on the web site.
3. Our Wife Assault Recidivism
Risk Appraisal Project was funded by the
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. The research project,
headed by Dr. Zoe Hilton, is a partnership between our Research team and
the Behavioural Sciences Section of the Ontario Provincial Police.
The principal results are the Ontario Domestic
Assault Risk Assessment (ODARA) and Domestic Violence Risk Appraisal Guide (DVRAG), actuarial assessments that
evaluate the likelihood a man will assault his partner again,
and how his risk compares with that of other wife assaulters. The
ODARA and DVRAG also predict the speed, severity and number of recidivistic
offenses. Click
here for more information.
4. Check out our Research Activities,
Bibliography, Recent
Presentations, or
Brief Articles about our work.
5. Our book, The causes of rape: Understanding individual differences in
male propensity for sexual aggression has been published by the American Psychological
Association. The authors are Martin Lalumière, Grant Harris, Vern Quinsey, and Marnie
Rice. Click here to learn more about the book. Click here to see a review of the book.
6. Our Team won the
Amethyst Award
for Outstanding Achievement by Ontario Public Servants.
7. Upon her retirement as Director, the members of the Research
Department named Marnie Rice Director of Research Emerita.
Dr. Rice was also recently inducted as a Fellow of the
Royal Society of Canada.
Parallel academies include the Royal Society of London and
the US National Academy of Science. Fellowship in the Royal Society is
the highest academic accolade available to scientists and scholars
in Canada. For more information, check the Society's
media release.
Research Activities
Our Research Department was established in 1975. The founder and
first Director was
Dr. Vernon Quinsey, who left in 1988 to become Professor of Psychology
at Queen's University at
Kingston, Ontario. From 1988 to 2002, our Director was Dr. Marnie Rice
who continues her research work part-time.
Dr. Grant Harris has been the Director of Research since 2002.
Since its inception, our team has
concentrated on the following research topics (listed in approximate
order of numbers of publications):
- Prediction of Violence and Violent Recidivism.
What personal characteristics reduce uncertainty about which
patients or offenders will commit new violent offenses? What are the
best ways to assess the risk of violence in mentally disordered
offenders, psychiatric patients, wife assaulters, and offenders in
general?
- Sex Offenders.
Why do some men sexually assault
women and children? Where do sexual interests in such deviant
activities come from? What interventions could stop such men from
repeating their offenses? What is the best way to assess deviant
sexual preferences?
- Psychopathy.
Psychopaths are callous, manipulative,
selfish, dishonest, and are responsible for much crime and violence.
What is the nature of psychopathy? What causes psychopathy? What
could be done to limit the harm caused by psychopaths?
- Treatment of Mentally Disordered Offenders.
What is
the best way to organize mental health systems for forensic patients?
What are the treatment needs of mentally disordered offenders?
- Violence and Teenagers.
How common is violence in
the lives of high school students? Which students are at risk for
committing and being the victim of violence and aggression? How do
students perceive such violence and what could be done to reduce violence
in the lives of adolescents?
- Violence in Institutions.
Which residents of
institutions are prone to violence? What conditions provoke violent
behavior? What conditions and programs can reduce violence in
institutions? What kinds of training can help staff anticipate,
prevent and safely control violence?
- Firesetters.
Why do some people set (not for profit)
fires? What interventions could stop them from repeating their
offenses?
In addition to strong support from our institution's administration, we have
received external research grant funding most often from the
Ontario Mental Health Foundation
, the Ontario
Ministry of Health, and the Social
Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada to pursue our
work.
