This Fact Sheet provides drug court staff with a concise and current overview of important issues pertaining to offender risk assessment, and it lists recommended contemporary risk-assessment instruments.
The risk scales identified are those best suited for use by drug courts. This was done by using validity criteria widely accepted in the research literature on risk assessment. The selection criteria used were 1) published as a peer review; 2) used in at least two distinct agencies or sites; 3) follow-up data for at least 12 months; 4) multiple outcomes considered (technical violations, new charges, new violent charges); 5) predictive ability of at least .65; and 6) can be a statistical scale or structured professional judgment. By applying these selection criteria to available risk instruments, a list of recommended instruments is provided. Instruments are categorized according to their measurement for the risk of general recidivism, intimate partner violent recidivism, and violent recidivism. Two promising instruments are also listed. In addition, 10 principles for using risk assessment are provided. 3 tables and 47 references