Deck 10: A: Risk Assessment

Question 1

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

Answer 1

The false positive level is 75%.

Question 2

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

Answer 2

clear,serious,and imminent danger of serious personal injury

Question 3

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

Answer 3

actuarial prediction

Question 4

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

Question 5

According to a study by Desmarais et al.(2010),what is the association between clinicians' confidence and accuracy in predicting short-term in-patient violence?

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 6

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 7

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 8

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 9

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 10

If a mental health patient makes a specific threat against another person (i.e.,I'm going to stab my roommate Sandra the next time she wakes me up in the middle of the night with her partying"),mental health professionals are expected to intervene to prevent such behaviour.This responsibility is called:

A)The person protection act
B)Civil commitment
C)Duty to warn
D)Unstructured clinical judgment
E)Actuarial prediction

Question 11

Trevor was a first-time offender serving a sentence for assault.When given a risk assessment,he was classified at a low risk to reoffend,and the parole board believed he would not offend again and was released.Three months later,Trevor was arrested and convicted of committing another assault,this time more violent.What type of prediction outcome does this scenario reflect?

A)True negative
B)False negative
C)True positive
D)False positive
E)Base rate

Question 12

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 13

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 14

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 15

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 16

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 17

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 18

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 19

Concern over school shootings has led to the assessment of many youths and attempts to predict which youths will be potential shooters.The problem is that many of these youths will be wrongly classified as potential shooters because we overestimate the prevalence of school shooting incidents.This example reflects

A)True negatives
B)False negatives
C)True positives
D)False positives
E)The base rate problem

Question 20

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 21

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 researchers.

Question 22

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 23

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 24

The two dispositional risk factors for criminal behaviour that have been researched extensively in the area of personality characteristics are:

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

Question 25

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 26

Which of the following is not one of the "central eight" risk factors that have been reliably associated with recidivism on the LS/CMI?

A)Antisocial companions
B)Procriminal attitudes
C)Impulsive behaviour
D)Criminal history
E)Alcohol/drug problems

Question 27

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 28

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 29

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

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

Question 30

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 31

Using the VRAG,which of the 12 predictors of violence listed below is the least predictive of violent recidivism?

A)Age at index offence
B)Diagnosis of schizophrenia
C)Psychopathy score
D)History of alcohol problems
E)Elementary school maladjustment

Question 32

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)s dynamic/acute dynamic
D)dispositional/contextual
E)historical/dispositional

Question 33

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

Question 34

Carson will soon undergo a parole hearing to determine whether he should be released from prison.A forensic psychologist conducts a risk assessment on Carson that contains 26 items that vary between static factors (i.e.,age at first conviction,prior release failures)and dynamic factors (i.e.,emotional regulation,impulsivity,work ethic)to predict violent and nonviolent reoffending.What measure is Carson's psychologist using in this risk assessment?

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

Question 35

Research has demonstrated that higher rates of violence are associated with all of the following disorders except:

A)Schizophrenia
B)Affective disorders
C)Psychoses
D)Personality disorders
E)Somatoform disorders

Question 36

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 37

Monahan (2012)recommended that each of the following variables be examined as potential risk factors for terrorism except:

A)Affiliations
B)Ideology
C)Grievances
D)Moral emotions
E)Psychopathy

Question 38

Lack of social support is considered a contextual factor increasing the risk for potential violence.The types of supports assessed for this risk factor do not include:

A)Financial support
B)Instrumental support
C)Emotional support
D)Appraisal support
E)Informational support

Question 39

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)Most people with mental disorders are not violent.
C)Psychosis can increase the odds of violence but this is dependent on study designs,what is measured,and timing of symptoms.
D)A relation has been found between substance use and violence.
E)all of the above

Question 40

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

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

Question 41

____________ 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 42

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 43

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 44

In Zamble and Quinsey's coping-relapse model,under which category or level would traits such as psychopathy and emotional reactivity belong?

A)cognitive and emotional appraisal
B)individual influences
C)environmental trigger
D)available response mechanisms
E)criminal behaviour

Question 45

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 46

In a study of desistence within a small group of high-risk violent offenders,Haggard,Gumpert,and Grann (2001)reported which of the following as a factor associated with desistance?

A)Social avoidance
B)S employment
C)More than three prior convictions
D)A good marriage
E)Older age

Question 47

Which of the following factors has been found to be a protective factor for men but a risk factor for women?

A)Substance abuse
B)Childhood abuse
C)Having a mental disorder
D)Being married
E)Criminal history

Question 48

Research by DeMatteo,Heilbrun,and Marczyk (2005)found that ____________ is more of a protective factor for high-risk offenders,whereas ______________ is more of a protective factor for low-risk offenders.

A)employment stability; strong family connections
B)strong family connections; intelligence
C)positive social orientations; employment stability
D)intelligence; strong social supports
E)strong social supports; positive social orientation

Question 49

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 50

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 51

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

A)STATIC-99
B)LSI-R
C)VRAG
D)MMPI
E)HCR-20

Question 52

Using the VRAG,which of the 12 predictors of violence listed below is the most predictive of violent recidivism?

A)Age at index offence
B)Diagnosis of schizophrenia
C)Psychopathy score
D)History of alcohol problems
E)Elementary school maladjustment