Forensic psychiatry & mental health law

Psychiatry & Law Radar

Tue 6 OctPAPER

Headlines are the editor's. Summaries are machine-written and staff reviewed. Nothing here is legal or clinical advice.

Staff reviewed

BASE RATE INFORMATION IMPROVES RISK ESTIMATION OF LAYPEOPLE AND EXPERTS.

— STAFF

Expert witnesses translating actuarial risk-tool output into probability figures overestimated sexual recidivism by roughly threefold against the observed benchmark, with the gap widening rather than narrowing as professional experience increased, which makes a risk estimate communicated without an accompanying empirical base rate harder to defend on cross-examination.

Sex Abuse. 2026;38(7):822-848.