Re: Discussion - Week 1

Risk assessment is used to predict future crimes and criminal behaviors; it also analyzes the likelihood of an offender committing an offense. The purpose of this paper is to identify two standardized assessment that can predict criminal behaviors and differentiate between each assessment. The two assessments that I chose are actuarial and clinical assessment.
      Risk assessment, focuses on the structural method used in the actuarial data and structured test and rating instrument. Actuarial assessment is the data collected, in the used to gathered and entered into the pre-existing equation (Otto, 2000).
This assessment utilized the approximation of relatively probability that an individual will engage in future violence (Tardiff & Hughes, 2011). Actuarial approaches risk assessment prohibits, and minimizes, the role of judgment by the mental health professional.
      Actuarial assessment tools can be lists of factors that are statistically recognized to be related to offending. For instance, offenders who are young tend to be more likely to re-offend. A reason could be the age or the ethical background because these are often measured statistically based risk factor.
      According to John Howard Society of Alberta (2000) Actuarial risk assessment focuses primarily on static (unchangeable) factors that influence recidivism. Many studies have been conducted in finding the static risk factor with the strongest influence on general recidivism (relapse into criminal behavior).
      There are numerous tool that help identify whether or not an offender will repeat an offense such as; Violence Risk Appraisal Guide (VRAG), the Statistical Information on Recidivism (SIR) scale, Static 99 and the Sex Offender Need Assessment Rating (SONAR). Each tool measure and analyze the occurrence of recidivism of a criminal offender.
      The strength of actuarial approaches to risk assessment includes the assumption of high reliability and known error rates. For instance,...