Promotive, Mixed, and Risk Effects of Individual Items Comprising the SAPROF Assessment Tool With Justice-Involved...

Area of Science:

• Forensic Psychology
• Developmental Psychology
• Criminology

Background:

• The Structured Assessment of Protective Factors for violence risk (SAPROF) is a validated tool for adult violence risk assessment.
• Its application to adolescent populations is not established, but its items may capture both strengths and risks.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the predictive validity of SAPROF items for violence recidivism in justice-involved male adolescents.
• To determine if SAPROF items capture promotive, risk, or mixed effects on reoffending.

Main Methods:

• A 3-year follow-up study of 229 justice-involved male adolescents.
• Analysis of SAPROF item effects (promotive, risk, mixed) on violent and any reoffending.
• Development and cross-validation of weighted SAPROF scores.

Main Results:

• Most SAPROF items demonstrated mixed effects, predicting both increased and decreased likelihood of reoffending.
• Weighted SAPROF scores significantly improved predictive accuracy for violence recidivism.
• These findings were replicated in a cross-validation sample of 171 adolescents.

Conclusions:

• SAPROF items can capture both protective factors and risks relevant to adolescent violence.
• Weighted SAPROF scores show potential for enhancing violence risk prediction in youth.
• Implications exist for developing and training professionals on youth-focused SPJ tools.