Persons with severe mental disorders and a history of violent offending are usually seen as a difficult-tomanage population: most have schizophrenia or severe affective disorders, while some suffer from severe personality disorders.

To investigate the sociodemographic, clinical, and treatment-related characteristics of a sample of patients living in RFs with a history of antisocial behaviour (‘violent’ group); to compare the characteristics of the ‘violent’ group with residents never violent; and to compare the rate of violent behaviour in the two groups over two years and to assess the likelihood of discharge in the two groups.

This is prospective observational cohort study involved 23 RFs of the St John of God Order in Northern Italy. The sample was divided into two groups: non-violent patients and ‘violent’ patients. The last included patients at last one time admitted in FMH or arrested for violent crimes or acted violent behaviors against people.

For each inpatient was filled out a “Patient Schedule”: socio-demographic and clinical data were collected, including a specific session to assess aggressive behavior lifetime and in the last year.

The study involved 403 patients: 89 ‘violents’ and 314 non-violent. ‘Violent’ group was mainly male, younger, with a prevalence of personality disorders. Coherently, in the group of ‘violent’ there were more people lifetime arrested and admitted to a FMH.

There are some differences in the monitoring of violent behavior in the two years of assessment. We observed more threatening, slap, punch, inappropriate sexual harassment, etc. in the ‘violents’ group.