Meta-analytic techniques were used to determine which predictor domains and actuarial assessment instruments were the best predictors of adult offender recidivism. One hundred and thirty-one studies produced 1,141 correlations with recidivism. The strongest predictor domains were criminogenic needs, criminal history/history of antisocial behavior, social achievement, age/gender/race, and family factors. Less robust predictors included intellectual functioning, personal distress factors, and socioeconomic status in the family of origin. Dynamic predictor domains performed at least as well as the static domains. The LSI-R was identified as the most useful actuarial measure. Recommendations for developing sound assessment practices in corrections are provided.

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A meta‐analysis of the predictors of adult offender recidivism: what works!*

Federal Abortion Policy and Politics: 1973-1996 Why is Abortion Such a Controversial issue in the United States Barriers to Access to Abortion Services The Impact of Anti-abortion Activities on Women Seeking Abortions Black Women and the Question of Abortion Latinos and Abortion Abortion and Asian Pacific Islander Americans The Acceptability of Medical Abortion to Women Understanding the Relationship of Violence Against Women to Unwanted Pregnancy and it's Resolution Testing a Model of the Psychological Consequences of Abortion Men and Abortion: The Gender Politics of Pregnancy Resolution Abortion Among Adolescents A Cognitive Approach to Patient-Centered Abortion Care Abortion Issues in Psychotherapy Bringing Lessons Learned to the United States Improving Access to Abortion Services Abortion Practice, Policy, and Research: Recommendations for the 21st Century

Violent offenders: Appraising and managing risk.

As with other fields, medical sciences are subject to different sources of bias. While understanding sources of bias is a key element for drawing valid conclusions, bias in health research continues to be a very sensitive issue that can affect the focus and outcome of investigations. Information bias, otherwise known as misclassification, is one of the most common sources of bias that affects the validity of health research. It originates from the approach that is utilized to obtain or confirm study measurements. This paper seeks to raise awareness of information bias in observational and experimental research study designs as well as to enrich discussions concerning bias problems. Specifying the types of bias can be essential to limit its effects and, the use of adjustment methods might serve to improve clinical evaluation and health care practice.

/pdf/information-bias-in-health-research-definition-pitfalls-and-1as13hgk9p.pdf

Information bias in health research: definition, pitfalls, and adjustment methods.

The history of risk assessment in criminal justice has been written on several occasions (Andrews & Bonta, 2003; Clements, 1996; Hollin, 2002). Here we assess progress since Andrews, Bonta, and Hoge’s (1990; Andrews, Zinger, et al., 1990) statement of the human service principles of risk-needresponsivity (RNR) and professional discretion. In those articles, the corrections-based terms of risk and need were transformed into principles addressing the major clinical issues of who receives treatment (higher risk cases), what intermediate targets are set (reduce criminogenic needs), and what treatment strategies are employed (match strategies to the learning styles and motivation of cases: the principles of general and specific responsivity). General responsivity asserts the general power of behavioral, social learning, and cognitive-behavioral strategies. Specific responsivity suggests matching of service with personality, motivation, and ability and with demographics such as age, gender, and ethnicity. Nonadherence is possible for stated reasons under the principle of professional discretion. Expanded sets of principles now include consideration of case strengths, setting of multiple criminogenic needs as targets, community-based, staff relationship and structuring skills, and a management focus on integrity through the selection, training, and clinical supervision of staff and organizational supports (Andrews, 2001). The review is conducted in the context of the advent of the fourth generation of offender assessment. Bonta (1996) earlier described three generations of risk assessment. The first generation (1G) consisted mainly of unstructured professional judgments of the probability of offending behavior. A

The Recent Past and Near Future of Risk and/or Need Assessment

Context Psychopaths belong to a larger group of persons with antisocial personality disorder and are characterized by an inability to have emotional involvement and by the repeated violation of the rights of others. It was hypothesized that this behavior might be the consequence of deficient fear conditioning. Objective To study the cerebral, peripheral, and subjective correlates of fear conditioning in criminal psychopaths and healthy control subjects. Design An aversive differential pavlovian delay conditioning paradigm with slides of neutral faces serving as conditioned and painful pressure as unconditioned stimuli. Setting The Department of Medical Psychology at the University of Tubingen, Tubingen, Germany. Participants Ten male psychopaths as defined by the Hare Psychopathy Checklist–Revised and 10 age- and education-matched healthy male controls. The psychopaths were criminal offenders on bail and waiting for their trial or were on parole. The healthy controls were recruited from the community. Main Outcome Measures Brain activation based on functional magnetic resonance imaging, electrodermal responses, emotional valence, arousal, and contingency ratings. Results The healthy controls showed enhanced differential activation in the limbic-prefrontal circuit (amygdala, orbitofrontal cortex, insula, and anterior cingulate) during the acquisition of fear and successful verbal and autonomic conditioning. The psychopaths displayed no significant activity in this circuit and failed to show conditioned skin conductance and emotional valence ratings, although contingency and arousal ratings were normal. Conclusion This dissociation of emotional and cognitive processing may be the neural basis of the lack of anticipation of aversive events in criminal psychopaths.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/articlepdf/208744/yoa40213.pdf

Deficient Fear Conditioning in Psychopathy A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study

Introduction

Many professionals believe that self-report questionnaires used to predict recidivism have a low validity. The aim of the present study was to investigate the assumption that the validity of self-report is vulnerable to self-presentation biases in offender samples.



Method

The participants consisted of 124 male offenders who volunteered to complete the Self-Appraisal Questionnaire (SAQ).



Results

Lower scores on measures of social desirability were significantly associated with higher levels of risk (as measured by self-report and a rated actuarial instrument) and a higher likelihood to re-offend. Further, stepwise regression analysis revealed that social desirability added significantly unique variance in the prediction of violent recidivism.



Discussion

The authors propose that impression management may be an enduring person-based characteristic within an offender sample rather than a situationally determined response style. The variance associated with this characterological information is proposed to be the source of the unique predictive variance. Copyright © 2003 Whurr Publishers Ltd.

Predictive validity despite social desirability: evidence for the robustness of self-report among offenders.

Self-report instruments have not been favored in the prediction of criminal recidivism. The present study compared the predictive accuracy of a self-report instrument (Self-Appraisal Questionnaire) with the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised, General Statistical Information on Recidivism, and the Violent Risk Appraisal Guide. The sample consisted of incarcerated males(N=78) who were followed for 2 years following release. Of the four risk prediction instruments, the Self-Appraisal Questionnaire was statistically equivalent in predicting nonviolent and violent recidivism. These results suggest that a self-report instrument can predict recidivism.

Evidence for the Efficacy of Self-Report in Predicting Nonviolent and Violent Criminal Recidivism

The Self-Appraisal Questionnaire (SAQ) is a recently developed self-report questionnaire designed to predict violent and nonviolent offender recidivism, This 67-item, six-subscale tool measures quantitative criminogenic risk-need an as. The SAQ was administered to 303 federally sentenced Canadian male offenders. The total scale test-retest reliability coefficient was .95 and ranged from .69 to .93 for the subscales. Coefficient alphas ranged from .42 to .87. All the subscales with the exception of one had a one-factor solution. The SAQ subscales correlated with other instruments assessing similar constructs and with other measures of recidivism. Offenders with high SAQ totals and subscale scores committed significantly mon offenses than did those with low SAQ scores. Similarly, offenders with a history of violence had higher SAQ total scores than the offenders with no history of violence. These preliminary results support the further study of the SAQ as an instrument for predicting violent and nonviolent recidivism.

Reliability, construct, and concurrent validities of the Self-Appraisal Questionnaire: A tool for assessing violent and nonviolent recidivism

The Level of Supervision Inventory (LSI) is a quantitative risk/need assessment instrument used to identify an offender's risk of committing criminal behavior and need for clinical services. The present study examined the LSI's utility among Canadian male federal offenders. The LSI was administered to 161 inmates during a structured interview and was verified through a review of case file information. The LSI possessed acceptable psychometric properties and demonstrated convergent validity with measures of relevant criminogenic constructs. Also, violent and nonviolent offenders differed on LSI total score and several LSI subtotals. Discussion focuses on treatment implications and areas for future research.

Wagdy Loza

Papers

Predictive validity despite social desirability: evidence for the robustness of self-report among offenders.

Evidence for the Efficacy of Self-Report in Predicting Nonviolent and Violent Criminal Recidivism

Reliability, construct, and concurrent validities of the Self-Appraisal Questionnaire: A tool for assessing violent and nonviolent recidivism

Psychometric Evaluation of the Level of Supervision Inventory (LSI) Among Male Canadian Federal Offenders

The psychology of extremism and terrorism: A Middle-Eastern perspective