Background. Individuals with psychotic disorders face profound challenges as they attempt to maintain identity through the course of illness. A small proportion of them commits violence. This presentation will address some challenges and discuss the violence stigma attached to persons with psychosis.

Aims. The first aim is to present the main groups of risk factors of violence: Dispositional, Historical, Contextual and Clinical. I will address the three last main risk assessment groups. First, I will focus on one historical and contextual factor, criminality, that often is ignored in risk assessment research. In the second aim I will scrutinize what dynamic aspects of psychosis that are empirically associated with risk of violence.

Methods. This is results from a structured literature review of the empirical research concerning the psychosis – violence link with focus on emotional catalysts in imminent violent hallucinations and delusions. If the review is published when the congress starts, I will present the results in detail.

Results and Conclusion. Focus on criminality appears to be a strong risk factor, even stronger than psychosis alone. Still, persons with psychosis have a higher risk for being victim than perpetrator. Psychosis at the diagnosis level is not enough to predict violence. Specific psychotic symptoms, such as persecutive delusions and violent auditive command hallucinations appear not to be automatically associated with violent acts. However, the strongest catalyst for perpetrating violence appears to be negative emotional distress.