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Risk assessment of federal female offenders

Date

2012-02-10

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

ORCID

Type

Degree Level

Doctoral

Abstract

Much remains to be learned about predicting recidivism in women, including which risk assessment instruments may be most beneficial and what other factors may add to a more complete understanding of recidivism for women. The predictive validities of four risk assessment instruments (i.e., the Level of Service Inventory- Revised (LSI-R), the Level of Service and Case Management Inventory (LS/CMI), the Violence Risk Scale (VRS) and the Statistical Information on Recidivism – Revised 1 (SIR-R1) scale) were compared in an archival sample of 101 federal female offenders on a series of outcome measures including institutional misconduct and general and violent recidivism. The incremental predictive validity of a number of gender informed variables (e.g., history of abuse, economic concerns, childcare responsibility and self harm/suicidality) was also explored. The four risk assessment instruments performed well (AUCs from .650 to .842), adding additional evidence to the growing literature supporting the use of traditional risk assessment instruments with female offenders (Smith, Cullen, & Latessa, 2009; Yang, Wong, & Coid, 2010; Andrews, et al., 2011). Few of the gender informed variables correlated with outcome with the exception of childhood emotional abuse which was related to violent recidivism (AUC .687). However, consistent with the pathways and gender-responsive theories of criminal behavior (Daly, 1992; Reisig, Holtfreter, & Morash, 2006), the combination of childhood emotional abuse and substance abuse appeared the most promising composite of gender informed variables as it was predictive of revocation, institutional misconduct and general and violent recidivism (r = .208 to .248, p < .05 ). Moreover, for most of the risk assessment instruments their predictive utility was improved by adding a gender informed variable or composite, although which variable or composite in particular was not consistent across outcomes or risk assessment instruments. Implications and future directions for risk assessment of women are discussed.

Description

Keywords

risk assessment, Level of Service, Violence Risk Scale, Statistical Information on Recidivism – Revised, female offenders

Citation

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

Department

Psychology

Program

Clinical

Citation

Part Of

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DOI

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