Anne Crocker

Anne Crocker
 

Associate Researcher


Specialized in forensic mental health services, Anne Crocker, Ph.D., leads an ambitious program of research and knowledge translation focused on the interface between the criminal justice and mental health systems. Her main areas of research are: 

  • Factors associated with violence and criminality among vulnerable populations such as persons with severe mental illness or intellectual disability. 
  • Criminal processes and issues: mental health or intellectual disability screening, fitness to stand trial, criminal responsibility, decision making. 
  • Forensic mental health services  

Altogether, Anne Crocker’s work aims to: 

  • Identify issues and specific needs pertaining to these individuals within the justice and health services 
  • Identify individual and group profiles of service users and their trajectories within the systems and develop typologies of justice-involved mentally ill individuals 
  • Analyze mechanisms involved in providing access and organizing services 
  • Develop, adapt, validate and implement risk assessment and management instruments
  • Identify determinants to social integration following involvement with the justice system  

These objectives evolve around two axis: 1-  Factors linked to the individual in contact with the criminal justice system 2-  Organizational and interorganizational factors between the justice, safety, and health and social services.  

Most projects led by Anne Crocker span on the national level. Among her most notable work, Anne Crocker leads the National Trajectory Project (https://ntp-ptn.org/) focuses on forensic issues and the organization of services around people who are found non-criminally responsible on account of mental disorder (NCRMD) and the Going Home Project in which follows-up NCRMD persons after their release from forensic services and their integration within the community. Her research program also includes studies on homeless populations (as a co-researcher on the At Home project), co-national lead on the justice component, inmates (through an epidemiological investigation of intellectual disability, severe mental illness and personality disorders in prisons) and the general population (studying crime components, impulsiveness and aggressive behaviors linked to mental illness). 

Risk assessment and management of violent behaviors among people with mental illness, intellectual disabilities or autism spectrum disorders also is a privileged area of Anne Crocker’s work. Investigations are on the way in order to establish profiles and prevalence of severe mental disorders and intellectual disabilities in forensic and in prison settings, among homeless and general populations as well. Through the assessment, validation, adaptation and implementation of assessment and management instruments, research is undertaken to improve integration perspectives for the concerned people and to facilitate caregivers’, staff’s and family members’ task involved. Anne Crocker’s team has notably translated in French, and provides training  on, the Short Term Assessment and Treatability (START,  http://crocker.mcgill.ca/francais/fr_start.html) clinical guide to favor its implementation in Quebec and in other French speaking communities. 


Anne Crocker obtained her Ph.D. in psychology at the Université de Montréal in 2000 and went on for a two-year post-doctorate in Mental Health Services at Darmouth Medical School (New Hampshire). Building an expertise in forensic mental health services and policies, she joined the Department of Psychiatry at McGill University and the Douglas Mental Health University Institute Research Centre in 2002, where she developed outstanding research work on forensic mental health. 

Through extensive involvement towards identifying and promoting the best practices for people with mental disorders, Anne Crocker has become an expert in knowledge translation in her field. Among other appointments at the Research Centre, she has served as Director for the Services, Policy and Populations Health research axis (from 2007 to 2013) and currently is Associate Director for the policy and Knowledge Exchange Service (since 2010). Her involvement in training and sharing knowledge and experience has also become a corner stone in her teaching activities as an Associate Professor at McGill’s Department of Psychiatry (since 2009) as well as Adjunct Professor at Université de Sherbrooke’s and Université du Québec à Montréal’s department of psychology. 

Over time, Anne Crocker’s work has become an authority in her area of research has reached local, national and international influence and acknowledgement. This translated in part in plentiful and fruitful collaborations with people and organisations not only in the fields of research and practice but also in the community. For instance, she was invited to act in a consultative position to the Correctional Service of Canada, the Mental Health Commission of Canada, Montréal’s Police Service (SPVM), Montréal’s Health and Social Services Agency, etc. She was also elected to the Board of Directors at the International Association of Forensic Mental Health Services for a three-year term in 2013. 

In addition to the recognition and acclamation, Anne Crocker’s work receives from her peers and the community, her leadership helped to make the Douglas Institute’s Research Centre the home port of research conducted at the national level on individuals who were found non-criminally responsible on account of mental disorders. At the provincial level, Anne Crocker leads the FRQS interdisciplinary research program on social integration of vulnerable persons with problematic behaviors (http://visev.ca).


Recent publications