Modifying a Risk Assessment Instrument for Youthful Offenders
Document Type
Article
Abstract
High rates of incarceration in the United States are compounded by high rates of recidivism and prison return. One solution is more accurate identification of individual prisoner risks and needs to promote offender rehabilitation and successful community re-entry; this is particularly important for youthful offenders who developmentally are in late adolescense or early adulthood, and who struggle to renenggage in education and/or employment after release. Thus, this study examined the feasibility of administration and initial psychometric properties of a risk and needs assessment instrument originally created for a juvenile justice population (the Global Risk Assessment Device or GRAD) with 895 male youthful offenders in one adult correctional system. Initial feasibility of implementation within the correctional system was demonstrated; confirmatory factor analyses support the invariance of the modified GRAD factor structure across age and race. Future studies are needed to examine the predictive validity and the sensitivity of the instrument.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
Publication Info
Published in Sage Publications, Volume 62, Issue 2, 2018, pages 291-570.
© The Author(s) 2016.
APA Citation
Shapiro, C. J., Malone, P. S., & Gavazzi, S. M. (2018). Modifying a Risk Assessment Instrument for Youthful Offenders. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 62(2), 482-503. https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X16656931