Book Description

In the Netherlands the vast majority of forensic mental health assessment on an in-patient basis is carried out at the Pieter Baan Centre, Utrecht, which has the legal status of a house of detention and observation centre. Suspects of serious offences are observed and assessed intensively for a period of seven weeks by a multidisciplinary team of experts. Not only has the enshrinement of forensic mental health diagnosis in the law led to the accentuation of an individualistic type of diagnosis but also makes it important for the expert to consider his position in the justice system. The various parts of the forensic mental health assessment are described in this volume as well as the legal enshrinement of the assessment, an international comparison of Dutch criminal law, the history of the hospital and a survey of relevant research. The Pieter Baan Centre has existed almost sixty years. Based on an extensive clinical experience, the authors offer an account of the way in which this hospital provides for forensic mental health reporting.