Barcelona snapshots

Prof. Jeremy W. Coid

Jeremy W. Coid psychiatrist Controversias Psiquiatry Barcelona
Queen Mary University of London, United Kingdom
Talk Youth Violence, Gang Violence and Psychiatric Morbidity
Dates September 2-4, 2020
Round Table 3 Violence and Aggression: Substance Use and Youth Violence

BIOGRAPHY

Professor Jeremy Coid completed medical training at Sheffield University and training in Forensic Psychiatry at the Maudsley and Broadmoor Hospitals. He was trained in research at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, where he completed his MD. As Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist he established the medium secure service to East London for mentally disordered offenders. He has extensive experience of giving evidence in court as an expert witness in cases of serious violence, sexual offending, and on childcare. He has been an advisor to the Department of Health, Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Defence on management of high risk offenders. He was appointed Senior Lecturer in Forensic Psychiatry in 1987 and awarded a personal chair in 1995.

Currently, Prof Coid is the Director of the Violence Prevention Research Unit at Queen Mary University of London. The VPRU focuses on research into the epidemiology and prevention of violence. It investigates causal mechanisms that explain violent behaviour in mental health care settings, with an emphasis on the links between violence and both severe mental illness and personality disorder. It evaluates the effectiveness of mental health care services in preventing violence. The research uses quantitative methods with statistical modelling of new instruments for the assessment of violence risk. It provides a unique translational focus into the application of violence risk modelling into risk management applications and interventions. The VPRU is a member of the WHO Violence Prevention Alliance.

ABSTRACT

Globally, most violence occurs between young men and there is a dramatic escalation in violence when young men bond together in groups. Gangs and gang violence are becoming increasingly recognised as a public health problem in many Europe countries and not just a phenomenon observed in the Americas. Gangs usually appear in conditions of social exclusion and inequality. They are important to members in providing status, group cohesion,and excitement. Violence is often instrumental to provide money, drugs and sex. Violence between gangs shows features of infectious spread and is frequently important in regulating an underground drug economy but equally reflects a complex set of inter-relations between local social networks where small incidents involving disrespect result in retaliation and escalation of violence. It is now shown that gang members have raised prevalence of all forms of psychiatric morbidity and mental health service use. There are currently three main theoretical explanations: 1. Trauma model. High levels of traumatic victimisation and fear of violent victimisation, 2. Developmental pathway model. High levels of childhood disadvantage and maltreatment independently increase the risks of joining a gang and of psychiatric morbidity, including substance misuse. 3. Syndemic theory. A syndemic is an aggregation of multiple health conditions and adverse health behaviours in which there is a positive biological interaction. This exacerbates the negative health effects of any or all of these factors by their synergistic effects on each other. The effects of this aggravation of health conditions is not just additive but multiplicative. This means that a single criminal justice agency or health discipline is unlikely to be able to deliver an effective intervention and interventions enquire co-ordinated multi-agency approaches. Gangs represent an important new public mental health area of study within the framework of social determinants of health.