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l'Information Psychiatrique. Volume 82, Number 8, 655-62, Octobre 2006, Surveiller, punir, soigner

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Author(s) : Gérard Rossinelli

Summary : Violence and psychiatry: what role for what experts?Faced with both a structural crisis and a crisis in the legal institution, the sectors of medico-legal psychiatry and psychiatric expert opinion are experiencing major operational difficulties which are only compounded by growing demand, the perceived increase of violent and dangerous behaviour within society and the demographic freefall in medical psychiatry. Neither those actions set up by the legal medicine sector to ensure its survival, the Jarde report nor the interministerial report carried out in January 2006 take into account the necessary specificity of expert psychiatric reports, the importance of clinical practice, and the need to invest in expert psychiatric clinical practice. Vital steps for the future would include an improvement in the status of expert psychiatrists, the creation of a specialised diploma (DESC) for medico-legal psychiatry, and the setting up of a federative structure for medico-legal psychiatry.

Keywords : medico-legal psychiatry, Jarde report, expert psychiatric opinion, expert legal opinion, violence and psychiatry