Measures of risk for violence and of aggression in a life history perspective linked to lethal violence among Swedish justice-involved women

The overall aim was to investigate links between measures of risk for violence and of aggression in a life history perspective and lethal violence among Swedish justice-involved women, and whether such measures differed between women with versus without a severe mental disorder (SMD). All registers of women (N = 175) charged with lethal or attempted lethal violence and subjected to a forensic psychiatric investigation in Sweden from 2000–2014 were included. The Historical Clinical Risk Management-20 (HCR-20), the Level of Service Inventory-Revised (LSI-R), and the Life History of Aggression (LHA) were used. Findings indicate that those charged with lethal violence seemed less burdened (e.g. lower levels of clinical/personal, financial, and leisure/recreational risk factors) compared to non-lethal cases. Risk and aggression measures differed substantially between the SMD (n = 84) and no-SMD group (n = 91), where the former showed more clinical issues and the latter more antisocial patterns and substance use.