The goal of the present research was to examine the effectiveness of the Self-Appraisal Questionnaire (SAQ) in predicting release outcome as compared to other well-established risk prediction measures. The SAQ is a self-report measure designed to predict offenders' postrelease out-come. The SAQ was administered along with four similar, but clinician-administered, measures to 68 federally sentenced Canadian male offenders prior to their release into the community. Data were collected for a 2-year follow-up period at six 4-month intervals. Outcome criteria measures were general recidivism, violent recidivism, and any failure (a composite measure recording failure on any of the following variables: negative parole reports, violation of parole conditions, incurring new charges, or a new conviction). Although the SAQ was the most economical of the comparable tools, results demonstrated that it was at least as effective as the four other measures in predicting postrelease outcome.

The Self-Appraisal Questionnaire (SAQ) is a recently developed self-report questionnaire designed to predict violent and nonviolent offender recidivism. This 67-item, six-subscale tool measures quantitative criminogenic risk-need areas. The SAQ was administered to 303 federally sentenced Canadian male offenders. The total scale test-retest reliability coefficient was .95 and ranged from .69 to .93 for the subscales. Coefficient alphas ranged from .42 to .87. All the subscales with the exception of one had a one-factor solution. The SAQ subscales correlated with other instruments assessing similar constructs and with other measures of recidivism. Offenders with high SAQ totals and subscale scores committed significantly more offenses than did those with low SAQ scores. Similarly, offenders with a history of violence had higher SAQ total scores than the offenders with no history of violence. These preliminary results support the further study of the SAQ as an instrument for predicting violent and nonviolent recidivism.

The Self-Appraisal Questionnaire (SAQ) is a 72-item self-report measure designed to predict violent and nonviolent recidivism among adult male criminal offenders. It was administered to 91 female offenders incarcerated in Pennsylvania and 183 incarcerated in Singapore correctional systems. Results indicated that the SAQ has sound psychometric properties, with acceptable reliability and concurrent and predictive validity for assessing violent and nonviolent recidivism. There were no significant differences between the scores of African American and Asian offenders and the responses of the White offenders. Similar to the findings from male offenders, the present results provide some support for the validity of the SAQ in the prediction of violent and nonviolent recidivism risk among White, African American, and Asian female offenders.

This study investigates the usefulness of assessing anger for the prediction of violent and nonviolent recidivism. Four risk/need measures and four anger inventories were administered to 252 Canadian federally incarcerated male offenders. The association between anger and recidivism was investigated by (a) comparing groups of participants classified to different levels of risks for recidivism according to their scores on actuarial measures of recidivism and their scores on measures of anger, (b) canonical correlation between the offenders' scores on measures of risk for recidivism and the anger inventories, and (c) correlating the clinical variables of age at admission, number of past offenses, and number of violent offences with offenders' scores on measures of anger. The results indicate that all comparisons are not significant. Results of this study shed doubts on the usefulness of assessing anger when predicting violent and nonviolent recidivism.

This study was designed to investigate the usefulness of targeting anger for the treatment of violent offenders and rapists. Four anger inventories were administered to 271 Canadian incarcerated male offenders comprised of four groups of offenders (violent vs. non- violent and rapists vs. nonrapists). These groups were compared according to their scores on the measures of anger. All comparisons were not significant. This study casts doubt on the usefulness of targeting anger for the treatment of rapists and violent offenders and on the effect of these programs on reduction of recidivism.