Exploring the social contagion effect of violence and aggression

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Exploring the possible social contagion effect of violence and aggression within high secure mental health hospitals.

• IRAS ID

  303408

• Contact name

  Suzanne O'Rourke

• Contact email

  suzanne.o'rourke@ed.ac.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  University of Edinburgh

• Duration of Study in the UK

  0 years, 9 months, 26 days

• Research summary

  Summary of Research
  Violence and aggression remain a key concern within secure mental health environments. It is hoped that a better understanding as to why and how violence and aggression occurs will lead to an overall reduction in its prevalence and the ability to use less restrictive response measures. The proposed research project aims to utilise routinely collected data about incidents of violence and aggression at NHS The State Hospital to investigate how and when violent incidents typically occur. Specifically, we aim to investigate whether violent incidents appear to “spread” in the same way a contagious illness might. We also aim to investigate to what extent environmental effects such as the weather, have on when violent or aggressive incidents occur. To complete this study, we intend to utilise a novel statistical approach called the Hawkes process, which explores the relationship between data points in time and space. The proposed study does not intend to make any contact with patients and will be entirely based on data which is routinely collected within the State Hospital.

  Summary of Results
  Previous studies looking at how much violence occurs within forensic hospitals, have mostly looked at what are the personal characteristics of people who have become violent. The current study will instead look at different environmental effects such as the weather to see if they are important in predicting when incidents of violence might occur.
  Initially we looked at all of the previously published studies that we could find looking at environmental effects linked to incidents of violence, within forensic hospitals. We were able to identify four groups of effects; temporal & seasonal effects; meteorological effects; staff factors and ward characteristics. We then assessed the quality of each of the included studies using a standardised method, this is a common practice to ensure the studies meet a good scientific standard. Twenty-two studies were found and commented on in this way. The findings of these studies seem to suggest that more violence occurs in the summer, on weekdays and when staff shifts are changing over. There is also evidence to suggest that having more female and senior staff on shift may reduce the likelihood of violence happening. Overall, there seems to be good evidence to suggest that environmental effects should be considered when assessing the risk of violence in forensic hospitals.
  We also completed a research project in a forensic hospital to investigate some of these environmental effects. We gathered information on all of the incidents of violence that occurred between 26/06/2012 to the 30/09/2021. Firstly the study investigated if the month, day of the week or time of day influenced how often incidents of violence occurred. Similarly, we investigated the effects that different weather conditions had on the rate of how often incidents of violence happened. Finally, we investigated if incidents of violence seemed to “spread” by one incident making another in the near future more likely and if this was influenced by the hospitals alarm system. We found that the weather did not seem to effect the rates of violence. However, we did find that violence was less likely to occur on the weekend and noted that violence was more likely to happen in the morning and late afternoon. Finally, there was some evidence to suggest that incidents of violence might spread..

• REC name

  North of Scotland Research Ethics Committee 1

• REC reference

  21/NS/0106

• Date of REC Opinion

  27 Aug 2021

• REC opinion

  Favourable Opinion