Deck 10: Risk Assessment

Question 1

Actuarial risk assessment differs from unstructured clinical risk assessment on the basis of:

A) the objectivity of the criteria used
B) the differential effectiveness of each method
C) the uniformity of the criteria use
D) how the risk factors are selected for inclusion
E) all of the above

Answer 1

how the risk factors are selected for inclusion

Question 2

Dr.Jerry Smith has been conducting risk assessments for the past 25 years.Given his experience he believes he can predict who will re-offend without the use of structured and/or standardized instruments.What generation does Dr.Smith's type of risk assessment belong to?

A) 1st generation
B) 2nd generation
C) 3rd generation
D) 4th generation
E) Generation X

Answer 2

1st generation

Question 3

One advantage of using the unstructured clinical judgment approach to assess risk of violence is ______________,whereas one disadvantage is _______________.

A) it is idiographic/it is nomothetic
B) it lacks consistency/it lacks transparency
C) it is flexible/it is subjective
D) it is accurate/it is idiographic
E) it is nomothetic/it lacks consistency

Answer 3

it is flexible/it is subjective

Question 4

Dr.James Grigson was a psychiatrist known to use a(n)_____________ approach to risk assessment.

A) unstructured clinical judgment
B) structured professional judgment
C) actuarial
D) anamnestic
E) risk factor

Question 5

Which of the following is a methodological weakness of risk assessment and related research?

A) The sample available for evaluating a risk assessment instrument is typically low risk.
B) The number of risk factors being studied is limited.
C) The use of official records in this type of research tends to underestimate the actual number of violent crimes committed.
D) The definition of the criterion variable is too restricted.
E) all of the above

Question 6

In predicting violent acts,a ______________ is an incorrect prediction in which a person is predicted to be violent but does not act violently.

A) false positive
B) base rate
C) true positive
D) false negative
E) true negative

Question 7

Prior to the 1990s,a person's risk of violence was viewed as a _____________.Today,it is viewed as a _____________.

A) scale/three-dimensional rating
B) dichotomy/range
C) three-dimensional rating/scale
D) range/dichotomy
E) none of the above

Question 8

A court decision mandated the release of 400 forensic psychiatric patients into the community.The clinical staff rated all these patients as being "dangerous" if released into the community.Researchers have conducted a three-year follow-up study on these 400 patients.Of this 400,100 were arrested for committing another violent offence.You should conclude the following from this finding:

A) The percentage of false positives is 25%.
B) The correct classification rate was 50%.
C) None of the forensic psychiatric patients should have been released.
D) The false positive level is 75%.
E) none of the above

Question 9

Which of the following civil rights cases was significant in calling into question the accuracy of mental health professionals in predicting violence?

A) Barefoot v. Estelle
B) Currie v. United States
C) W. v. Egdell
D) Baxstrom v. Herald
E) Smith v. Jones

Question 10

Currently,what is/are the primary objectives of violence risk assessment?

A) to estimate the likelihood that someone will commit a future act of violence
B) to determine whether an offender is fit to stand trial
C) to identify treatments that will reduce the individual's level of risk
D) to develop causal explanations of criminality and violence
E) both a and c

Question 11

In predicting violent acts,a ______________ is an incorrect prediction in which a person is predicted to be nonviolent but acts violently.

A) false positive
B) base rate
C) true positive
D) false negative
E) true negative

Question 12

Based on the Smith v.Jones (1999)case,the Supreme court ruled that doctor-patient confidentiality could be set aside if the following was present:

A) a past history of repeated serious personal injury offenses
B) clear, serious, and imminent danger of serious personal injury
C) if the patient discloses he/she has been sexually abused as a child
D) a past history of engaging in serious personal injury offences and vague threats of engaging in future violence
E) has been detained to warrant expiry in a prison and is a high-risk for future violence

Question 13

Which of the following civil contexts might require a risk assessment?

A) A teenager emails her teacher about bringing a gun to school.
B) A father claims his ex-wife is an abusive mother and he should have sole custody of their children.
C) A depressed patient tells his therapist he wants to hurt his ex-girlfriend.
D) A person with a history of terrorist activities applies to immigrate to Canada.
E) all of the above

Question 14

According to a study by Desmarais et al.(2010),what is the association between clinicians' confidence and accuracy?

A) There is a small relationship between confidence and accuracy.
B) The is a strong relationship between confidence and accuracy.
C) As confidence increases, accuracy decreases.
D) The results from this study suggest that clinicians tend not to have an overconfidence bias.
E) Most clinicians rated their confidence as very low.

Question 15

Which of the following statements is true regarding prediction outcomes in the context of risk assessment?

A) Decreasing the number of false positive errors results in an increase in the number of false negative errors.
B) A false negative error has negative implications for the person being assessed.
C) When trying to predict events that have low base rates, false negative errors tend to occur most frequently.
D) The base rate of conditional release violations is very low.
E) all of the above

Question 16

Which method of risk assessment bases decisions on predetermined risk factors that are statistically and empirically related with a specific outcome?

A) actuarial prediction
B) correlational assessment
C) structured professional judgment
D) unstructured clinical judgment
E) static risk

Question 17

A possible decision error made by clinicians in which it is believed that a correlation exists between two events that are in fact unrelated or correlated to a lesser degree is defined as:

A) a false negative
B) an illusory correlation
C) a base rate
D) a relation error
E) a threat/control override

Question 18

In 1977,____________ was enacted,which required mental health professionals to provide an assessment of risk for violence.

A) habitual criminal legislation
B) chronic offender legislation
C) dangerous offender legislation
D) long-term offender legislation
E) violent offender legislation

Question 19

When might an offender risk assessment take place?

A) during sentencing
B) when deciding whether a youth should be sent to secure custody
C) pretrial
D) when deciding whether an inmate should be released on parole
E) all of the above

Question 20

Structured professional judgment risk assessment is associated with the following characteristic:

A) specific cut-offs to determine risk level
B) both static and dynamic risk factors
C) only dynamic risk factors
D) statistically derived risk factors
E) only static risk factors

Question 21

Which risk assessment instrument was found to be useful in predicting general and violent recidivism in female offenders?

A) STATIC-99
B) LSI-R
C) VRAG
D) MMPI
E) none of the above

Question 22

____________ is a risk factor for recidivism uniquely found in women.

A) Substance abuse
B) Antisocial attitudes
C) Antisocial associates
D) Criminal history
E) History of suicide attempts

Question 23

Victims of ____________ have an increased likelihood of becoming perpetrators of violent crime.

A) neglect
B) physical abuse
C) sexual abuse
D) both a and b
E) both b and c

Question 24

Approximately ________ of female offenders report experiencing severe physical abuse as a child or adolescent.

A) 10%
B) 40%
C) 50%
D) 70%
E) 95%

Question 25

Consisting of ten items,the ____________ is an actuarial scale developed for the prediction of sexual recidivism.

A) STATIC-99
B) VRAG
C) SARA
D) PCL-R
E) VRS

Question 26

The HCR-20 is:

A) an example of an actuarial tool for assessing risk of violence
B) an example of an actuarial tool for assessing responsivity to treatment
C) an example of a structured professional judgment for assessing risk of violence
D) an example of a structured professional judgment for assessing psychopathy
E) a tool for measuring happiness in criminals who are undergoing rehabilitation

Question 27

Which of the following statements is true regarding the connection between clinical risk factors and violence?

A) Forensic psychiatric patients with a history of suicide attempts and self-injurious behaviour are more likely to engage in violence than other patients.
B) Research on the relationship between command hallucinations and violence is inconclusive.
C) A strong correlation has been found between threat/control override symptoms and violence.
D) A relation has been found between substance use and violence.
E) all of the above

Question 28

Which of the following characteristics is not associated with structured professional judgment?

A) It may include both static and dynamic risk factors.
B) A person's ultimate risk level is determined by specific cut-off scores.
C) It is guided by predetermined list of risk factors.
D) It may be conducted by law enforcement officers.
E) It is supported by Canadian researcher Dr. Christopher Webster.

Question 29

Which of the following historical factors has not been identified as a predictor of future criminal behaviour?

A) late onset of criminal behaviour
B) poor institutional adjustment
C) past supervision failure
D) childhood history of maltreatment
E) past violent behaviour

Question 30

The assessment test most commonly used by correctional psychologists is the:

A) MMPI
B) HCR-20
C) VRAG
D) PCL-R
E) LSI-R

Question 31

Compared to male offenders,female offenders are more likely to:

A) lack education
B) be younger
C) have extensive criminal histories
D) be victims of physical and sexual abuse
E) be on social assistance

Question 32

The two dispositional risk factors for criminal behaviour that have been researched extensively are:

A) psychosis and impulsiveness
B) psychopathy and impulsiveness
C) neuroticism and psychopathy
D) psychosis and neuroticism

Question 33

The HCR-20 organizes risk factors into which of the following three scales?

A) Home, Clinical, Risk Management
B) Historical, Criminal, Recidivistic
C) Home, Clinical, Recidivistic
D) Historical, Clinical, Risk Management
E) Historical, Criminal, Risk Management

Question 34

Review board decisions to transfer a forensic psychiatric patient to a less secure institution are typically based on all of the following factors except for:

A) clinical judgment
B) actuarial risk assessment scores
C) institutional behaviour
D) physical attractiveness
E) compliance with medication

Question 35

Gender is an example of a(n)_____________ risk factor,whereas lack of social support is an example of a(n)________________ risk factor.

A) historical/static
B) clinical/dispositional
C) stable dynamic/acute dynamic
D) dispositional/contextual
E) historical/dispositional

Question 36

Which of the following is not a factor influencing the recidivism process,according to Zamble and Quinsey's coping-relapse model?

A) cognitive and emotional appraisal
B) individual influences
C) environmental trigger
D) available response mechanisms
E) none of the above

Question 37

Which of the following is not true regarding risk factors associated with future violence?

A) Some risk factors are fixed.
B) Some risk factors cannot be undone.
C) Some risk factors may be resistant to change.
D) Some risk factors may vary across time and be subject to intervention.
E) none of the above

Question 38

The symptoms that override a person's self-control or threaten a person's safety that increase the likelihood of violence are labelled:

A) command hallucinations
B) threat/control override symptoms
C) clinical/contextual symptoms
D) static/dynamic symptoms
E) none of the above

Question 39

The ____________ is a risk assessment instrument that relies on structured professional judgment and is primarily successful at predicting violent recidivism.

A) VRAG
B) HCR-20
C) SARA
D) STATIC-99
E) PCL-R

Question 40

Level of intoxication is an example of a(n)_________________ risk factor,whereas age of onset of antisocial behaviour is an example of a(n)_______________ risk factor.

A) dynamic/clinical
B) static/dynamic
C) historical/dispositional
D) dynamic/static
E) contextual/clinical

Question 41

What is actuarial risk assessment?
Provide two advantages and two disadvantages associated with this method.What new method of risk assessment was developed in an attempt to address certain limitations associated with the actuarial approach?

Question 42

Identify and explain the three main weaknesses of research on the prediction of violence.

Question 43

Name and define the two components of the risk assessment process.

Question 44

Name four ways in which female offenders differ from male offenders.

Question 45

Identify and explain the four historical risk factors for violent/criminal behaviour discussed in your text.Be as specific as possible.

Question 46

What was the main issue raised in the Baxstrom and Dixon cases/studies?
What are the two key findings to emerge from this research?

Question 47

Risk assessment is associated with both correct and incorrect prediction outcomes.Construct a 2 × 2 table illustrating four possible prediction outcomes in risk assessment for violence.Identify who suffers the consequences of each decision error.

Question 48

Within the context of violence prediction,distinguish between a static risk factor,a dynamic risk factor,and a protective factor.Provide an example of each.

Question 49

Using structured professional judgment,you wish to predict an offender's risk of violent recidivism.Of the assessment instruments described in your textbook,which one would you likely use?
Provide a brief description of your chosen instrument.