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Castelletti

In the last decades, interest and research on violence risk assessment tools for patients suffering from mental disease has significantly increased, providing different approaches that vary from actuarial to structured clinical judgement. From a national perspective, it may be useful for psychiatrists not directly involved in forensic context to become familiar with tools that are mostly studied and used elsewhere. The imminent announced closing of the six national OPGs (Ospedali Psichiatrici Giudiziari) will inevitably increase the number of mentally disordered offenders directly managed by local general services (Dipartimenti di Salute Mentale), which will be asked by the courts to assess the risk of danger of some of their clients. Our aim herein is to review the international literature over the last 10 years in terms of evidence for the predictive validity of major violence risk assessment tools in correctional, forensic and general psychiatric settings.