Deck 10: B: Risk Assessment

Question 1

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

Answer 1

-Prediction: describes the probability that an individual will commit future acts of violence; focus is on the identification of risk factors related the commission of future violence
-Management: development of interventions to manage or reduce the likelihood of future violence

Question 2

What is desistance and why is age related to declines in criminal offending? What interpersonal moderators also have been proposed to aid in the transition between criminal offending and desistance?

Answer 2

Desistance occurs when an individual who has engaged in criminal activities stops committing crime.Research even reveals that a majority of offenders show large declines in their criminal activity in early adulthood.
Age is strongly related to criminal behaviour,and the age-related decline in criminal offending is connected to the maturation process ( Menard & Huizinga,1989 ).LeBlanc (1993)defined maturation as the "development of self- and social control" (p.65 ).Shover and Thompson (1992 )suggested that as people age,they become less interested in a criminal lifestyle and are more able to understand and fear the consequences of engaging in crime.
Recently,Serin and Lloyd (2009 )developed a model that proposes the transition between criminal offending and desistance is influenced by several intrapersonal moderators,such as crime expectancies (what benefits do they see from not engaging in crime),beliefs about their ability to change (how hard will it be to change),and attributions for engaging in crime

Question 3

Using structured professional judgment,you wish to predict an offender's risk of violent recidivism (and not general recidivism).Of the assessment instruments described in your textbook,which one would you likely use? Provide a brief description of your chosen instrument.

Answer 3

-HCR-20 (Webster et al.,1997)
-Relies on structured clinical judgment
-Designed to predict violent behaviour in correctional and forensic psychiatric samples
-HCR-20 contains 20 items organized into three main scales that represent Historical (past,static),Clinical (current,dynamic risk factors),and Risk Management (future community or institutional adjustment)

Question 4

Describe the coping-relapse model of criminal recidivism proposed by Zamble and Quinsey (1997),including the four levels of the model that can lead to criminal behaviour.

Question 5

What are the three types of judgment errors or biases that clinicians make when assessing risk?

Question 6

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

Question 7

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 8

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 9

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

Question 10

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

Question 11

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 12

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