Risk assessment for criminal justice, offender intervention, and victim services.

2010 ◽  
pp. 9-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Zoe Hilton ◽  
Grant T. Harris ◽  
Marnie E. Rice
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Victim Services

Layers of Bias: A Unified Approach for Understanding Problems With Risk Assessment

2018 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurel Eckhouse ◽  
Kristian Lum ◽  
Cynthia Conti-Cook ◽  
Julie Ciccolini
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Quantitative Risk Assessment ◽  
Risk Scores ◽  
Risk Models ◽  
Risk Assessment Models ◽  
Final Layer ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
Using Data

Scholars in several fields, including quantitative methodologists, legal scholars, and theoretically oriented criminologists, have launched robust debates about the fairness of quantitative risk assessment. As the Supreme Court considers addressing constitutional questions on the issue, we propose a framework for understanding the relationships among these debates: layers of bias. In the top layer, we identify challenges to fairness within the risk-assessment models themselves. We explain types of statistical fairness and the tradeoffs between them. The second layer covers biases embedded in data. Using data from a racially biased criminal justice system can lead to unmeasurable biases in both risk scores and outcome measures. The final layer engages conceptual problems with risk models: Is it fair to make criminal justice decisions about individuals based on groups? We show that each layer depends on the layers below it: Without assurances about the foundational layers, the fairness of the top layers is irrelevant.

scholarly journals Restorative justice and victims: Not a self-evident relationship

Temida ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antony Pemberton ◽  
Frans Winkel ◽  
Mark Groenhuijsen
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Theoretical Model ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Restorative Justice ◽  
Traumatic Stress ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
The Other ◽  
European Forum ◽  
Victim Services ◽  
Evident Relationship

The two most prominent developments in criminal justice in the last twenty to thirty years are the rise of restorative justice and the recognition and improvement of the position of the victim. The first part of the paper discusses a theoretical model for victims within restorative justice that the researchers at the InterVICT research institute authors of this paper) are developing at this moment. This model incorporates current knowledge from social psychology and studies surrounding traumatic stress and provides a number of hypotheses that will be subsequently evaluated in practice with participants in restorative justice procedures. On the other hand, international legal protocols for restorative justice also lack a consistent victim-oriented perspective. To this end the European Forum for Victim Services has recently published a statement concerning the position of the victim within mediation. The second part of the paper addresses the central issues in this statement. Taken together the paper moves beyond criticism of restorative justice, as it hopes to redirect theory and implementation of restorative justice toward a stronger victim-orientation.

scholarly journals Risk Refraction: Thoughts on the Victim-Survivor’s Risk Journey through the Criminal Justice Process

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 177-190
Author(s):  
Charlotte Barlow ◽  
Sandra Walklate ◽  
Kelly Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Complexity Theory ◽  
Partner Violence ◽  
Intimate Partner ◽  
Assessment Practices ◽  
Front Line ◽  
Complex Interplay ◽  
Justice Process ◽  
Criminal Justice Process

The limits of inter-agency understandings of risk in the context of intimate partner violence are well documented. Informed by Hester’s (2011) ‘three planet’ analogy and using empirical data in one police force area in the south of England, this paper offers an exploration of intra-agency operations, focusing on police risk assessment practices. Exploring the policing risk lens and the victim-survivor journey together, findings highlight police operate with at least three risk assessment moments (call hander, front-line and Safeguarding Hub) and point to the tensions that result when failing to centralise victim-survivors’ own assessment of their risk. Using complexity theory, this paper examines the complex interplay of risk that occurs when the victim-survivor risk journey intersects with the policing aspect of the criminal justice process.

Automated Risk Assessment in the Criminal Justice Process

Prejudice ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 135-154
Author(s):  
Endre Begby
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Institutionalized Racism ◽  
Risk Assessment Tools ◽  
History Of ◽  
Justice Process ◽  
Criminal Justice Process ◽  
Algorithmic Bias

This chapter addresses recent concerns about “algorithmic bias,” specifically in the context of the criminal justice process. Starting from a recent controversy about the use of “automated risk assessment tools” in criminal sentencing and parole hearings, where evidence suggests that such tools effectively discriminate against minority defendants, this chapter argues that the problem here has nothing in particular to do with algorithm-assisted reasoning, nor is it in any clear sense a case of epistemic bias. Rather, given the data set that we are given to work with, there is reason to think that no improvement to our epistemic routines would deliver significantly better results. Instead, the bias is effectively encoded into the data set itself, via a long history of institutionalized racism. This suggests a different diagnosis of the problem: in deeply divided societies, there may just be no way to simultaneously satisfy our moral ideals and our epistemic ideals.

Predictions of Violence

2018 ◽  
pp. 143-157
Author(s):  
John Monahan
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Central Issue ◽  
Violence Risk ◽  
Historical Account ◽  
Violence Risk Assessment ◽  
Comprehensive Review ◽  
Psychology And Law ◽  
Criminal Justice Systems

This chapter presents an historical account of the emergence of violence risk assessment as a central issue in what were portrayed as reforms of the mental health and criminal justice systems in the 1970s. The author traces his own involvement in the nascent field of psychology and law to his writing the first comprehensive review of research on the validity of violence risk assessment. The chapter then details the major theoretical, empirical, and policy strides that characterized violence risk assessment as it matured over the next several decades. The author concludes by reflecting on several issues whose resolution has proved elusive.

Principles and practices of risk assessment in mental health jail diversion programs

CNS Spectrums ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (5) ◽  
pp. 593-603
Author(s):  
Sarah L. Desmarais ◽  
Evan M. Lowder
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Public Safety ◽  
The Body ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Diversion Programs ◽  
Jail Diversion ◽  
Risk Assessment Tools ◽  
The Impact

Eligibility criteria for participation in mental health jail diversion programs often specify that, to be diverted, a candidate must not pose a level of threat to public safety that cannot be managed in the community. Risk assessment tools were developed to increase consistency and accuracy in estimates of threat to public safety. Consequently, risk assessment tools are being used in many jurisdictions to inform decisions regarding an individual’s appropriateness and eligibility for mental health jail diversion and the strategies that may be successful in mitigating risk in this context. However, their use is not without controversy. Questions have been raised regarding the validity and equity of their estimates, as well as the impact of their use on criminal justice outcomes. The purpose of this review is to provide an overview of the science and practice of risk assessment to inform decisions and case planning in the context of mental health jail diversion programs. Our specific aims include: (1) to describe the process and components of risk assessment, including differentiating between different approaches to risk assessment, and (2) to consider the use of risk assessment tools in mental health jail diversion programs. We anchor this review in relevant theory and extant research, noting current controversies or debates and areas for future research. Overall, there is strong theoretical justification and empirical evidence from other criminal justice contexts; however, the body of research on the use of risk assessment tools in mental health jail diversion programs, although promising, is relatively nascent.

Parole Guidelines: Suggested Research Questions

1981 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-224 ◽  
Author(s):  
James L. Galvin ◽  
Kenneth Polk
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Research Community ◽  
Statistical Procedures ◽  
Offense Severity ◽  
Rehabilitation Model ◽  
Time Served ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
The Impact

Three factors have supported the development of parole guidelines: criticism of the rehabilitation model as a basis for parole decision making and the accompanying movement toward a just deserts model of punishment, the development of sophisticated statistical procedures for risk assessment, and increasing questions about disparity in criminal justice decision making. This paper raises questions related to each of these three factors that should be addressed by the research community as guidelines are implemented. With respect to offense severity and sentence served, key considerations are the rationale for sentence lengths, the degree to which discretion is being structured, inmates' perceptions of the guidelines, and the effect of guidelines on time served. Under risk assessment and parole prediction, the accuracy of the salient factors as predictors, the problem of false positives, and the possibility of unan ticipated bias must be addressed. In terms of effects on the overall system, questions are raised about the extent to which discretion can be structured, the effect on correctional staffs of changing the purpose of correction, and the impact of such a shift on the already dwindling resources for the parolee. The paper closes with a call for a coherent program of research to accompany the implementation of guidelines.

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