Abstract

As highlighted elsewhere in this text, the study of Human Directed Aggressive Behaviour (HDAB), and the strategies employed to address it, are hampered by the way it is perceived and rationalized by the public, the media and to some extent policy makers. Dog bites in particular invoke a certain degree of dread because of their perceived unpredictability (Hogue et al., 2015, unpublished results). Many dog bite prevention strategies have been conceived and employed, and their development accelerated by the consistently high level of media and public interest. Unfortunately most of these strategies have not been the product of good quality evidence, instead being purposed for the perceived rather than actual reduction of risk. In this chapter, we draw on the experience of forensic psychology for managing the risk associated with repeat violent behaviour to propose an alternative strategy for the understanding and reduction of HDAB risk, through evidence based risk prediction and structured professional judgement.