A Second Proof of Concept Investigation of Strengths Using the Structured Assessment of Violence Risk in Youth Tool...

Despite efforts to incorporate protective factors or 'strengths' in applied risk assessments for criminal reoffending, there has been limited progress towards a consensus regarding what is meant by such terms, what effects predictors can exert, or how to describe such effects. This proof of concept study was undertaken to address those issues. A structured professional judgment tool was used to create lower and higher historical/static risk groups with a sample of 273 justice-involved male youth with sexual offenses followed over a fixed 3-year period. Using risk and protective poles to create pairs of dichotomous variables from trichotomously rated risk and protective items, risk-based exacerbation and risk-based protective effects were found. These varied in terms of whether the effect on the outcome of a new violent (including sexual) offense was larger, smaller, or absent for youth at higher or lower historical/static risk. Some of these potentially dynamic dichotomous variables were shown to have a protective (or risk) effect after controlling for both historical/static risk and that same item's risk (or protective) effect. Some moderated the association between historical/static risk and recidivism, strengthening or reducing it. Terms for these effects and implications of incorporating strengths in research and applied practice were considered.