Lec 1 Flashcards
Risk assessment definition:
the attempt to predict the likelihood of future offending in order to identify individuals in need of intervention
Risk assessment must specify:
- Behavior
- Potential damage or harm caused by the behavior
- The probability that it will occur and under what circumstances
Risk management=
Interventions to manage or reduce risk
RNR model:
- Risk- offenders with higher risk of recidivism benefit most from intense treatment
- Need- only factors associated with reduction of recidivism should be addressed during treatment
- Responsivity- interventions should be tailored to offenders characteristics, like motivational level, personal circumstances, learning style
Big 4 of criminogenic needs:
- History of antisocial behavior
- Antisocial personality pattern
- Antisocial cognitions
- Antisocial peers
History of antisocial behavior (Big 4): risk and dynamic need:
- Risk: early and ongoing involvement in a number and variety of antisocial acts in a variety of settings
- Dynamic need- work on non-criminal alternative behaviors in high-risk situations
Antisocial personality pattern (Big 4): risk and dynamic need:
- Risk: thrill-seeking, weak self-control, restless, aggressive
- Dynamic need: work on problem-solving skills, self-management skills, anger management, and coping skills
Antisocial cognitions (Big 4): risk and dynamic need:
- Risk: attitudes, beliefs, rationalizations that support criminal behavior, cognitive-emotional conditions of anger, resentment, and pride
- Dynamic need: reduce antisocial cognitions, recognize risky ways of thinking and feeling, develop alternative and less risky ways of thinking and feeling, adopt a renewed or anti-criminal identity
Antisocial peers (Big 4): risk and dynamic need:
- Risk: close contacts with criminal others and relative social isolation with non-criminal others, direct support for crime
- Dynamic need: reduce contacts with cirminal others, build contacts/links with non-criminal others
Central 8 (Big 4+ Moderate 4)
- Family/marital relationships
- School and job
- Prosocial recreational activities
- Substance abuse
Relevant non-criminogenic needs for general offending behavior (4):
- Self-esteem
- Emotional problems
- Psychiatric illness
- Health
- Indirectly contribute to the reduction of dynamic risk
Important non-criminogenic risk factors that seem to be directly related to recidivism reduction (2):
- A decrease in negative emotions
- Successful treatment process from the client
External responsivity (RNR):
type of treatment, characteristics of the therapist, availability of adequate interventions, possibilities offered by the treatment environment (stability, quality of life, mobility)
Internal responsivity (RNR):
take into account the individual characteristics of a client: intellect, personality, disorder, treatment motivation, learning style
4 generations of risk assessment instruments:
-1st generation: unstructured professional judgment
-2nd generation: actuarial instruments
-3rd generation: structured professional judgment (1st generation + 2nd generation)
4th generation: +case management
1st generation risk assessment instrument:
- Unstructured professional judgement
- No underlying assessment instrument
1st gen advantages:
- not expensive
- flexible, convenient
- no training needed
1st gen disadvantages:
- Lack of consistency and transparency
- Susceptible to biases
- No training needed
- Lack f scoring integrity
- Accuracy equal to chance
- Poor reliability and validity
2nd generation insturment:
-Actuarial
-Empirically-based, mostly statistic items
Score a list of factors and add them up, look in norm table
2nd gen advantages:
- Transparent/objective
- Good reliability and predictive validity
- Interrater reliability
- Quick and easy to conduct
- Replicable
2nd gen disadvantages:
- A-theoretical (not based on theory, explanation models)
- Unchangeable, thus also does not allow for change over time
- Limited identification of treatment targets
- Limited integration of interventions
- Only risk factors, and no protective factors
- No clinical override
- Risk categories based on group data
3rd generation instruments:
- Structured professional judgment
- Includes protective + dynamic risk factors and (non-)criminogenic needs
3rd gen advantages:
- transparent
- sensitive to change
- good reliability and predictive validity
- identification of treatment goals
- professional is always in the lead
- context dependent
- multi-dimensional
- risk formulation
3rd gen disadvantages:
- more time consuming
- repeated measures to examine changes
- limited integration of intervention
4th gen instruments:
- A combination of all generations + case planning and interventions
4th gen advantages:
- transparent
- sensitive to change over time
- theoretically sound
- allows for clinical judgment
- incorporates interventions
4th gen disadvantages:
- more time consuming
- repeated measures to examine changes
- training and expertise
Static risk factors:
Not changeable/treatable (e.g., age, ethnicity, type of offense, first conviction). Give an idea of a basic risk but not be used to handle the offenders
Dynamic risk factors:
Changeable/treatable. Interventions aim to change dynamic risk factors → ‘’causal’’ status
- Also called criminogenic needs.
Stable dynamic risk factors:
- Modifiable but unlikely to change
- Personal skill deficits and learned behaviors -Can be changed through a process of effortful treatment (e.g., impulse control, poor attachment)
Acute dynamic risk factors:
- Modifiable and likely to change
- Highly transient conditions that only last hours or days
- Rapidly changing because of environmental triggers or intrapersonal stresses related to re-offense (e.g., intoxication, negative mood)
Protective factors:
- Prosocial means or strategies to achieve one or more primary human goods, also referred to as common life goals
- Protective factors are buffers
- Improve prediction accuracy
Good Lives Model (GLM):
-Accomplish a good life by fulfilling these primary goods
Specific offender populations:
- Sex offenders (hands-on/off)
- Offenders with an ID
- Women
- Youth
