Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

CiteULike is a free service for managing and discovering scholarly references - click here to get started.

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
International Journal of Social Psychiatry
This Article
Right arrow Free Full Text (Free PDF) Free
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Tyrer, P.
Right arrow Articles by Maden, T.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Tyrer, P.
Right arrow Articles by Maden, T.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

The Quantification of Violence Scale: a Simple Method of Recording Significant Violence

Peter Tyrer

Department of Psychological Medicine, Imperial College (Charing Cross Campus), London, p.tyrer{at}imperial.ac.uk

Sylvia Cooper

Department of Psychological Medicine, Imperial College (Charing Cross Campus), London

Elizabeth Herbert

Imperial College Medical School, Exhibition Road, London

Conor Duggan

Department of Forensic Mental Health, University of Nottingham, Nottingham

Mike Crawford

Department of Psychological Medicine, Imperial College (Charing Cross Campus), London

Eileen Joyce

Institute of Neurology, University College London, Box 19, The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, London

Deborah Rutter

Department of Psychological Medicine, Imperial College (Charing Cross Campus), London

Helen Seivewright

Department of Psychological Medicine, Imperial College (Charing Cross Campus), London

Sandra O'Sullivan

Department of Psychological Medicine, Imperial College (Charing Cross Campus), London

Bharti Rao

Department of Psychological Medicine, Imperial College (Charing Cross Campus), London

Domenic Cicchetti

Department of Psychological Medicine, Imperial College (Charing Cross Campus), London

Tony Maden

Department of Psychological Medicine, Imperial College (Charing Cross Campus), London

Background: Although there are many rating scales recording the incidence and intensity of violence there are none that are specifically concerned with the measurement and assessment of severe violence.

Aims: To develop a scale sensitive to variation centred on severe violence, establish its normative values, test its feasibility, and assess its reliability and validity in different populations.

Method: The Quantification of Violence Scale (QOVS) was developed in two stages. First, a list of 30 commonly eXperienced violent episodes in clinical psychiatric practice were evaluated and tested by weighting each episode by severity. Second, a numerical scale used to record the severity of the episode according to its degree of planning, intent and consequences. Violent episodes in two clinical populations were compared using the Modified Overt Aggression Scale (MOAS) and the preliminary version of the QOVS over periods up to 18 months, following which the numerical scale was developed.

Results: Good (0.60—0.74) to EXcellent (> 0.75) test—retest and inter-rater reliability agreement was obtained with both forms of the scale (intra-class correlations of 0.75 and 0.69 respectively), and similar agreement with MOAS scores was reached (0.67) in clinical populations. The scale was quick and easy to use in practice, and a score defining severe violence (9 on the numerical scale and 16 on the matched scale) was determined.

Conclusions: The QOVS, in its two forms, is a useful measure of recording significant violence in clinical and forensic practice.

International Journal of Social Psychiatry, Vol. 53, No. 6, 485-497 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0020764007083870
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?