Matching Services to Criminogenic Needs Following Comprehensive Risk Assessment Implementation in Juvenile Probation

2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (8) ◽  
pp. 1136-1153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca J. Nelson ◽  
Gina M. Vincent

One emphasis of juvenile justice reform has been implementation of risk assessment instruments to improve case planning. This study examined the ability of juvenile probation departments to apply the risk-needs-responsivity (RNR) framework into case planning following a comprehensive implementation protocol. Data were collected on 385 adolescent offenders across three probation departments following implementation of the Structured Assessment of Violence Risk for Youth (SAVRY) and an RNR-related case planning policy. As expected, as risk levels of youth increased, probation departments assigned more services and addressed more criminogenic need areas in their case plans. Most case plans (86%) adhered to the policy to limit the number of needs addressed at one time. The quality of service-to-need matching varied by criminogenic need area, risk level, and site. Implications to juvenile courts’ and probation officers’ case planning and the challenges of research on service-to-need matching are discussed.

2018 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jodi L. Viljoen ◽  
Catherine S. Shaffer ◽  
Nicole M. Muir ◽  
Dana M. Cochrane ◽  
Etta M. Brodersen

Even when probation officers use risk assessment tools, many of their clients’ needs remain unaddressed. As such, we examined whether the implementation of the Structured Assessment of Violence Risk in Youth (SAVRY) and a structured case planning form resulted in better case plans as compared with prior practices (i.e., a nonvalidated local tool and an unstructured plan). Our sample comprised 216 adolescents on probation who were matched via propensity scores. Adolescents in the SAVRY/Structured Plan condition had significantly better case plans than those in the preimplementation condition. Specifically, following implementation, adolescents’ high need domains were more likely to be targeted in plans. Plans also scored higher on other quality indicators (e.g., level of detail). These improvements appeared to be due primarily to the structured plan rather than the SAVRY. Overall, our findings highlight that, just as structure can improve risk assessments, so too might structure improve case plans.


Author(s):  
Vadim B. Alekseev ◽  
Nina V. Zaitseva ◽  
Pavel Z. Shur

Despite wide legislation basis of regulating relations in work safety and workers’ health, one third of workplaces demonstrate exceeded allowable normal levels of workers’ exposure to occupational hazards and present occupational risk for health disorders.In accordance to national legislation acts, evaluation should cover factors of occupational environment and working process, and occupational risk is understood in context of mandatory social insurance. This approach has been formed due to mostly compensatory trend in legal principles of work safety in Russia by now. Implementation of new preventive concept of work safety, based on idea of risk management for workers, necessitates development of legal acts that regulate requirements to evaluation of occupational risk and its reports with consideration of changes in Federal Law on 30 March 1999 №52 FZ “On sanitary epidemiologic well-being of population”.Those acts can include Sanitary Rules and Regulations “Evaluation of occupational risk for workers’ health”, that will contain main principles of risk assessment, requirements to risk assessment, including its characteristics which can serve as a basis of categorizing the risk levels with acceptability.To standardize requirements for informing a worker on the occupational risk, the expediency is specification of sanitary rules “Notifying a worker on occupational risk”. These rules should contain requirements: to a source of data on occupational risk level at workplace, to informational content and to ways of notifying the worker. Specification and implementation of the stated documents enable to fulfil legal requirements completely on work safety — that will provide preservation and increase of efficiency in using work resources.


Author(s):  
Grant Duwe

As the use of risk assessments for correctional populations has grown, so has concern that these instruments exacerbate existing racial and ethnic disparities. While much of the attention arising from this concern has focused on how algorithms are designed, relatively little consideration has been given to how risk assessments are used. To this end, the present study tests whether application of the risk principle would help preserve predictive accuracy while, at the same time, mitigate disparities. Using a sample of 9,529 inmates released from Minnesota prisons who had been assessed multiple times during their confinement on a fully-automated risk assessment, this study relies on both actual and simulated data to examine the impact of program assignment decisions on changes in risk level from intake to release. The findings showed that while the risk principle was used in practice to some extent, the simulated results showed that greater adherence to the risk principle would increase reductions in risk levels and minimize the disparities observed at intake. The simulated data further revealed the most favorable outcomes would be achieved by not only applying the risk principle, but also by expanding program capacity for the higher-risk inmates in order to adequately reduce their risk.


2021 ◽  
pp. 009385482110084
Author(s):  
Gina M. Vincent ◽  
Rachael T. Perrault ◽  
Dara C. Drawbridge ◽  
Gretchen O. Landry ◽  
Thomas Grisso

This study examined the feasibility of and fidelity to risk/needs assessment, mental health screening, and risk-need-responsivity (RNR)-based case planning within juvenile probation in two states. The researcher-guided implementation effort included the Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument-2 (MAYSI-2), Structured Assessment of Violence Risk in Youth (SAVRY), and policies to prioritize criminogenic needs while using mental health services only when warranted. Data from 53 probation officers (POs) and 553 youths indicated three of five offices had high fidelity to administration and case planning policies. The interrater reliability ( n = 85; intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC][A, 1] = .92 [Northern state] and .80 [Southern state]) and predictive validity ( n = 455; Exp[B] = 1.83) of SAVRY risk ratings were significant. There was an overreliance on mental health services; 48% of youth received these referrals when only 20% screened as having mental health needs. Barriers to fidelity to RNR practices in some offices included assessments not being conducted before disposition, lack of service availability, and limited buy-in from a few stakeholders.


Assessment ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 107319112095806
Author(s):  
Daryl G. Kroner ◽  
Bree Derrick

Correctional and forensic mental health settings potentially have multiple risk assessment instruments administered on a single client. Because of the various methods of determining risk categories, risk-level consistency can become an issue. The Council of State Governments Justice Center developed a Five-Level System that can be applied to most risk assessment instruments. Using the Level of Service Inventory–Revised and two created risk assessment instruments, the present study assessed if the Five-Level System (vs. normative percentile categories) demonstrated greater agreement between the two instruments, and, if so, the percentage of greater agreement. The Five-Level System demonstrated 4% to 5% greater agreement for both risk-level placement and recidivism rates. The implications of this greater consistency among risk assessment instruments is an increased fairness in making risk-level assignments.


2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (5) ◽  
pp. 1631-1647 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shirin Rezaei ◽  
Sajjad Shokouhyar ◽  
Mostafa Zandieh

Purpose Given the competitive environment and complicated relationships in supply chains in the modern era, it is important to take into account internal and external risks. In addition, proper methods must be designed to evaluate these risks correctly. The purpose of this paper is to provide a suitable map based on the artificial neural network technique to assess and classify the risk levels of retailers who have interconnected rules in the downstream of the supply chain. Design/methodology/approach In this research, a model for risk assessment with a hexagonal grid and 2D self-organizing map was applied. Findings According to the results, the model used in the study can provide a basis for classification of retailers based on the specified risk levels defined by the experts and risk managers of the company. Also with the model’s visual output, managers can have a better understanding of the distribution of the risk level of retailers. Practical implications The proposed methodology can be adopted by managers to assess the risk of members involved in the supply chain, helping them to formulate the risk mitigation strategies based on the risk levels. Originality/value As a part of the risk management process, organizations can use this developed method to reduce the existing risks imposed by the members or customers on the company.


2011 ◽  
Vol 38 (6) ◽  
pp. 554-564 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer E. Storey ◽  
Andrea L. Gibas ◽  
Kim A. Reeves ◽  
Stephen D. Hart

Although a great deal of research has focused on the development and validation of violence risk (threat) assessment instruments, few studies have examined whether professionals can be trained to use these instruments. The present study evaluated the impact of a violence risk assessment training program on the knowledge, skills, and attitudes of 73 criminal justice professionals, including police officers, civilian support staff, and prosecutors. The program covered principles of violence risk assessment, the nature of mental disorder and its association with violence risk, and the use of various structured professional judgment (SPJ) risk assessment instruments. Comparisons of pre- and post-training evaluations indicated significant improvements on measures of knowledge about risk assessment, skills in the analysis of risk in a case vignette, and perceived confidence in conducting violence risk assessments. Findings support the utility of risk assessment training for criminal justice professionals and the utility of SPJ violence risk assessment instruments generally.


Author(s):  
Sanjeev Puri

Risk management for software projects is intended to minimize the chances of unexpected events, or more specifically to keep all possible outcomes under tight management control with making judgments about how risk events are to be treated, valued, compared and combined. It is necessary to have some well-founded infrastructure for the identification of software security risks as well as the application of appropriate controls to manage risks. To be truly beneficial, the risk analysis framework must be granular and practical enough to produce a customizable roadmap of which problems exist, and to rank them in order of severity. The paper a risk assessment framework for a precise, unambiguous and efficient risk analysis with qualitative risk analysis methodologies and tree based techniques by exploiting the synthesis of risk analysis methods with object-oriented modeling, semi-formal methods and tools, in order to improve the security risk analysis of software and security policy implementation of security-cri tical systems to reduce risk levels and optimizequality instructions.


Author(s):  
Heli Irmeli Koskinen

Customers can be important partners and a resource for entrepreneurs during a pandemic situation. In this study, the utilization of this resource was investigated from the perspective of horse entrepreneurs. Firstly, the communication activity of horse entrepreneurs in their social media platforms was inspected, and secondly, a risk assessment for each horse premise was performed. As a result, a variation of communication activity of horse entrepreneurs was found between the northern and southern parts of Finland, and different risk levels of horse premises can be shown. In Northern Finland, 25% and, in Southern Finland, 43% of horse entrepreneurs gave COVID instructions to their customers. Risk levels varied from moderate to unacceptable. Many factors affect the risk level of horse premises, and it is not always in the hands of a single horse entrepreneur to guarantee a healthy environment to customers. Rather, it needs an investigation of the hygiene behaviour of customers and partnership with customers.


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