Background: Women with histories of childhood trauma tend to score higher on recidivism risk/needs assessment tools, such as the Level of Service Inventory-Revised: Screening Version (LSI-R: SV). These may affect their chance of leaving custody, but risk scores may be inflated by reliance on additional items which reflect other fixed childhood events. Aims: We hypothesised that adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) would be related to immutable risk measures according to the LSI-R: SV, such as juvenile arrest history, rather than more mutable factors, such as criminal attitudes. Methods: Two interviewer-administered questionnairesone about ACEs and one about criminogenic risk and needs-were given to a cohort of women just after release from jail. Phi coefficients were used to test for associations between ? ACE scale scores and scores on the risk tool-the LSI-R: SV. Results: ACE scale items were related to static risk item scores from the LSI-R: SV, but not to any of the dynamic risk items except psychological health. Conclusions: Risk reduction is an important task in the criminal justice system, for which systematic risk assessment is an integral part of decision making. Self-reported experience of psychological health apart, only fixed historical variables were related to estimated recidivism risk. There was
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