Risk assessment tool floundering? Let's ask the client to self-predict.

Area of Science:

• Criminal Justice
• Psychology
• Sociology

Background:

• Risk assessment in criminal justice often overlooks client self-knowledge.
• Self-prediction measures are not standard in risk assessment procedures.
• Clients possess unique insights into potential risks.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the Transition Inventory, an eight-scale self-prediction measure.
• To assess the predictive validity of self-prediction in criminal justice clients.
• To explore the incremental contribution of self-prediction to risk assessment.

Main Methods:

• Administered the Transition Inventory to 131 paroled clients with drug-related offenses.
• Included 104 minority/ethnic status clients in the sample.
• Analyzed predictive validity for supervision failure and construct validity for individual scales.

Main Results:

• The Transition Inventory incrementally predicted supervision failure.
• Individual scales demonstrated construct validity by predicting corresponding measures.
• The Leisure scale showed the most robust predictive relationship.

Conclusions:

• Self-prediction, using measures like the Transition Inventory, can enhance risk assessment accuracy.
• Incorporating client self-knowledge may improve predictability in criminal justice.
• Self-prediction tools can foster greater client engagement in the assessment process.