• V Dittmann.
• Abteilung forensische Psychiatrie der Psychiatrischen Universitätsklinik Basel.
• Ther Umsch. 1996 Mar 1; 53 (3): 327-46.

AbstractForensic psychiatric diagnosis and treatment should be guided by juridical goals and never be an end in itself. As a whole it is a public service concerning the interests of the perpetrators and the security of the entire population as well. Recent progress in forensic psychiatry is based on integral and comprehensive concepts. In the evaluation of criminal responsibility the new approaches of psychiatric diagnosis like operationalism, application of quantificating instruments and multiaxial diagnostic systems are of considerable importance. The ICD-10 classification of WHO can now be regarded as our reference system. To be acceptable for juridical purposes the evaluation of criminal responsibility has to be based on a systematical analysis of all important factors like actual situation of crime, environment, influence of psychotropic substances, psychosocial stressors, influences of biography and mental disorders. Assessment of prognosis is obligatory by law in many cases. These are juridical decisions, which have to be prepared by the psychiatric experts in the form of risk evaluations considering factors like development of delinquency, analysis of crime, kind of mental disturbance, insight of the perpetrator in his disorder, social competence, selfexamination of the perpetrator of his crime, possible therapies and social circumstances after discharge. Only an integral multiprofessional approach can be regarded as successful in the therapy of forensic high risk patients with paraphilas and aggressive impulse-control disorders. In Switzerland there is still a considerable lack of appropriate institutions for these patients. The vast amount of data accumulated during forensic psychiatric routine should be analysed in multicenter studies with scientific documentation systems to achieve progress in forensic risk calculation and efficiency of therapies.

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