Peter Braun
Peter Braun, healthcare psychologist (GZ-psychologist) and psychotherapist (BIG-registered). Member of the Dutch Institute of Psychologists (NIP) since 1978. He studied at the Catholic University in Nijmegen. From 1979 to 2021, he worked in three different forensic psychiatric (TBS) clinics: 22 years at GGzE (formerly RPI and Grote Beek), followed by 6 years at FPC De Rooyse Wissel, and finally 16 years at the Long-Term Forensic Psychiatric Care locations in Zeeland and Vught of the Pompestichting.
In addition, he worked for 22 years as an independent Pro Justitia expert witness. He served as chair of COST Action IS2031, “Towards a European Research Network on (Long-term) Forensic Psychiatric Care,” from 2013 to 2017. He is currently working for Confidence-Twende in Maasbree and as a consultant for the Belgian government in the construction of forensic psychiatric clinics. He is a speaker at conferences in the Netherlands and abroad, and a guest lecturer in the professional training program for lawyers.
What happens with a person during longterm detention?
When people are incarcerated, the intention of the measure is to keep them out of free society, to prevent further rule-breaking behavior and prepare the person to enter society less criminal. In this lecture it will be pointed out that there are big differences in the aim of detention (future risk reduction) and the outcomes. Part of the difficulty of attaining lowering of criminal behavior is in the nature of detention itself. Long detention results inmany persons in a diminished ability to plan, give structure to their days and to empathize with other people. This partly is due to changes in the brain as a result of thedetention regime. These negative effects can be diminished. During this lecture it will be pointed out how this side-effect of long detention can be influenced and what the role ofpsychologists can be in this respect.