Risk and recidivism Flashcards
1
Q
Define risk principle
A
- The level of intervention received by an offender should match the level of threat that the offender poses
- High risk offenders should receive higher level interventions than low risk offenders
2
Q
Define need principle
A
- Proposes that to reduce recidivism, interventions should target only those needs (or risk factors) that to contribute to offending behaviour
3
Q
Define risk assessment
A
- A set of procedures and methods for estimating likelihood of future offending by an individual or the level of harm that be caused by it and the identifying factors that might be associated with it
- Draws on information about the offender and their circumstances in order to reach judgements about their likely future behaviour e.g. the likelihood of re-offending, being convicted in the future, causing harm to others
4
Q
What are the methods of risk assessment?
A
- Clinical
- Diagnostic assessment of risk
- Collection of backgrounders information and observation of offenders by professional - Actuarial
- Involves statistical algorithms and equations
- Scores represent the likelihood of offending (e.g. on a scale of 1-100) or can be categorised (e.g. low, medium, high risk) - Static
- Historical factors e.g. numbers of previous convictions, age, gender - Dynamic
- e.g. psychological, social, behavioural
5
Q
What is the National Offender Management Services (NOMS)?
A
- Replaced HM services
- Aims to reduce re-offending and protect public
- ## Incorporates prison and probation services
6
Q
What is Offender Group Reconviction Scales (OGRS)?
A
- OGRS4 designed by Howard, 2015
- Assessment tool
- Actuarial risk of reconnection tool
- Calculates offenders with be re-convicted within 1-2yr
- Gives accurate predictors; measure of predictive validity is around 80% for both general and violent reoffending estimates
- Early versions used a small number of static data points (e.g. age, gender, criminal history) to provide an estimate of likelihood of reconnection within the next 2 yrs
- Widely used in UK just to ease and speed
- Latest version is OGRS4; allows user to input similar data to get 1yr and 2yr predictor of both of both violent and general offending
- Takes into account ‘offence-free time’; when calculating the risk of reoffending previous versions provided fixed OGRS scores when in reality the risk of reoffending decreases the longer the ‘offence-free time’ is
- OGRS4 was based on research of nearly 2m offenders who had either been released from custody or sentenced to community penalty
- Produces a risk score of 0-1
- Criticised for focusing on static and historic criminal history and demographic variables; doesn’t look at dynamic social and behavioural items and because of this it is used purely as estimating reoffending and doesn’t provide an insight into offender’s needs
7
Q
What is Level of Service Inventory (LSI-R)
A
- Designed by Andrews and Bonta, 1995
- 54 risk item and need assessment instrument
- Provides an estimate of risk of offending as well as providing information regarding treatment needs for the offender
- Focus on static and dynamic factors
10 sub-components
- Criminal history
- Education/employment
- Finances
- Family/marriage
- Accommodation
- Leisure/recreation
- Companions
- Alcohol/drug use
- Emotional/personal
- Attitudes
- Low scores = lower criminogenic risk factors, lower risks, lower risk of offending
- Used a lot in Europe and north America
- Research findings support the reliability and validity of the tool
8
Q
Describe Offender Assessment Systems (OASys)
A
- Structured clinical assessment tool
- Data collected through file review and offender interviews
- Compromises static and dynamic factors
- Relies on actuarial and practitioner interpretations of offender’s circumstances to form the final risk assessment
- Main critique is it takes a long time to complete (2.5hrs) compared to other techniques (e.g. LSI-R only takes 10 mins)
- Produces rich and detailed data
- Praised for being a comprehensive and research-based tool
- Validity has been improved due to consideration of ‘offence-free time’
Components of OASys
- Risk of reconviction and offender related factors
- Risk of serious harm (to individual and others)
- OASys summary sheet
- Sentence planning
- Self-assessment
9
Q
Describe Historical, Clinical, Risk Management (HCR-20)
A
- Assessment tool
- Designed by Webster et al, 1997
- Incorporates structural clinical judgements to provide an assessment of future violent behaviour amongst psychiatric, forensic and criminal justice populations
- Consists of 20 items (10 historical, 5 clinical, 5 risk management)
- Updated twice due to new findings
- Shown to be predictive of inpatient violence by psychiatric clients or those released from hospital
- Research on forensic populations support the predictive ability in relation to violence
10
Q
Describe Risk Matrix 2000 (RM2000)
A
- Actuarial risk tool
- Designed by Thornton et al, 2003
- Uses a two-step process to determine the offender’s judged risk banding (low, medium, high, very high)
- First step provides an initial assessment of risk level through the evaluation of the number of sex offence sentences, the number of criminal offence sentences and the offender’s age on release from prison
- Second step considers the presence of aggravating factors and adjusts the initial assessed risk level if needed (the presence of two or more risk factors increases the initial risk level by one unit
- Level two risk factors include a male victim in a previous sex offence, a stranger victim in any previous sex offence, any non-contact sex offence and the offender never being married
11
Q
Describe Structured Assessments of Risks and Needs (SARN)
A
- Designed by Thornton, 2000
- Measures risk through RM2000
- Once offender has been categorised through RM2000, next step in to assess the presence/absence of 16 dynamic risk factors that through empirical evidences been linked to sex offence recidivism
- Risk factors are across 4 domains: sexual interests, distorted attitudes, social/emotional functioning and self-management
- Each of 16 factors are scored twice (first in relation to their offence, second in relation to life in general)
- Using psychometric data, personal info, file review and interview material, risk factors are scored as 0 (not present), 1 (present but not central characteristic) or 2 (central characteristic)
- Any factor scored a 2 is considered a relevant treatment need meaning to tool provides treatment needs as well as risk assessment
12
Q
Describe the Psychopathy Checklist (PCL-R)
A
- Designed by Hare, 1994
- Designed to act as a clinical guide in diagnosing psychopaths
- Not a risk assessment, but has been found to be helpful in predicting violent crime recidivism
- Checklist is widely used in forensic and clinical settings
- The 20 items cover demographic, criminological, social and psychological domains
- The presence/absence of these are determined through interview, file review and are history review
- Each item is scored as 0 (not evident), 1 (somewhat evident), 2 (definitely present)
- Maximum score of 40; Hare recommends a score of 30+ indicates psychopathy
13
Q
Describe General Offender Programmes
A
- Based on social learning theory; idea is that you don’t need direct experience of an event in order to learn from it
- Observational learning and vicarious reinforcement is thought to be how people maintain certain behavioural patterns
- Behavioural programmes tend to focus on teaching offenders new skills e.g. problem-solving skills
14
Q
Describe Enhanced Thinking Skills (ETS)
A
- Problem-solving/social and moral reasoning skills
- Pro-social modelling
- Utilise role play
- Guided discussion
- Group exercises
15
Q
Describe Aggression Replacement Training (ART)
A
- Developed originally for aggressive youths
- Revised by Goldstein et al (1998) to suit adult offenders
- Seeks to develop lack of personal, interpersonal, social and cognitive skills
