Risk assessment Flashcards
What is risk assessment?
Risk Assessment is used for decision making about the likelihood of a person committing a violent offence (Challinor et al., 2021)
Good risk assessment states potential risks + point in the direction of accurate help/ways to minimise the risk
HCR-20v3
The 3rd version of the HCR-20. A comprehensive violence risk assessment tool which combines measures of 3 aspects of the offender’s life. Their History birth- assessment (past experiences), Clinical 6 mo (current issues) and Risk scale 6-12 mo (future risk of offending)
For 18+, men and women,
Dynamic
Doesn’t require presence of violence or MH issues = can give a low risk score
What are the different approaches of risk assessment?
1st generation:
Clincal/ Proffessinal Judgement Appraoch
2nd generation: Actural appraoch
3rd generation: SPJ appraoch Strucured Professional Jusgement Appraoch
Issues with risk assessmen?
- Violence and crime are quite rare= hard to predict BUT still better than chance b/c any human behaviour can be studied.
Risk management
Process of mitigating the violent risk posed by an individual
Issues with risk assessmen?
- Violence and crime are quite rare= hard to predict BUT still better than chance b/c any human behaviour can be studied.
Clinical/Professional Judgement Approach
+Flexible, any info can be used
+Most commonly used, no special training required
+Person-centered, good with intervention planning
- No empirical support, unreliable and not valid
- Bases on how persuasive/charesmiatic the psychologist is
- Like “flipping a coin” (Ennis and Litwack, 1974)
Acturial Approach
Introduced by Monahan (1981)
+Objective and based on empirical research
- Limited to the assessment tools available = doens’t consider all info, more ‘one size fits all’
- Designed to predict outcome by looking at particular aspect of sb’s life and crime to predict an outcome
- Doesn’t give info about the individual
- Low responsivity to change
Strucutred Prosessional Judgement Appraoch
Comines strengths of Actuarial and Clinical approaches, developed in 1990’s
+Uses an established tool for measurement but the decision is made by the psychologist (no cut-off scores)
+Gived likelihood of recidivism and possible management plans
+Usually needs re-assessment over time, so is dynamic and gives the most relevant assessment
- Expensive
- Not well used in terms of the intervention creation
- If not well distributed (e.g. training to other team members) it can become a sole responsibility of the psychologist - not feasible
Violence defined in HCR-20
Actual, attempted, or threatened infliction of bodily harm on another person (both physical and psychological)
HCR-20 v3
The 3 stage re-assessment (dynamic/cyclic)
1. Idenitifying facts Gather information Rate presence of Risk Factors 2. Making meaning Rate relevance of risk factors Formulation of violance Planning Scenerios 3. Taking action Designing Management Plan Formation of the final opinions
HCR-20 v3 Risk Management Strategies
Monitoring Measuring changes over time via contact Treatment Type of treatment required Supervision / Control Restriction Victim safety planning Improving victims’ resources/preparation
Assessment from the view of the psychologist
Need to use relevant theory but also apply the ‘scientific practitioner’ model which is currently dominant
across applied psychology (Haynes & O’Brien, 2000).
Also important to remember about the biases and reflective practice overall (and possible the “reflective practitioner”) (Crighton & Towl, 2008).
The scientific practitioner approach (Haynes & O’Brien, 2000)
- Theoretical basis + Preliminary formulation
- Data gathering + Data analysis
- Formulation + Reformulation
Diagnosis
Is often used in clinical practice to refer to a specific form of categorization involving the identification of signs and symptoms, and the use of these to allocate to categories which, in turn, are associated with specific outcomes or prognosis and interventions or treatments.
