A comparison of diversity, frequency, and severity self-reported offending scores among female offending youth.

Abstract

[Correction Notice: An Erratum for this article was reported in Vol 24(3) of Psychological Assessment (see record 2012-04601-001). The article contained a number of errors which are corrected in the erratum.] Despite general consensus over the value of measuring self-reported offending, discrepancies exist in methods of scoring self-reported offending and the length of the reference period over which offending is assessed. This analysis compared the concurrent interassociations and longitudinal predictive strength of diversity, frequency, and severity offending scores measured over the past 6 months and diversity and severity scores measured "ever" between assessments. For violent offending, different scorings were highly correlated and equally predictive of adulthood offending. For nonviolent offending, there was significant continuity in diversity and severity-weighted diversity scores over the transition to adulthood but not in nonviolent frequency or severity-weighted frequency scores. Results support the use of offending diversity scores rather than offending frequency scores and highlight the importance of examining nonviolent and violent offending as separate constructs.

Youth’s Perceptions of Parental Support and Parental Knowledge as Moderators of the Association Between Youth–Probation Officer Relationship and Probation Non-compliance

“…Further, relative to the widely used frequency or incidence scores, variety scores are less prone to recall error and represent a more normally distributed range of responses. Variety scores have also shown good predictive strength in offending, more particularly in non-violent offending (Oudekerk, Erbacher, & Reppucci, 2012) and are increasingly preferred over frequency scores by researchers (Odgers et al, 2007; Osgood, 2000). …”

Predictors of Physical Altercation among Adolescents in Residential Substance Abuse Treatment

“…Because each item represents increasingly restrictive involvement with the juvenile justice system, a weighted sum scoring method rather than a simple sum was considered to be a more accurate reflection of criminal history. Previous studies have applied higher weight values to more serious criminal behaviors to create severity-weighted indices of criminal behavior (Evans et al 1995; Evans et al 1997; Oudekerk et al 2012). Similarly, the Crime History Index items were weighted by severity so that more restrictive involvement with the juvenile justice system represented a higher value.…”

Romantic Partner Deviance and the Continuity of Violence From Adolescence to Adulthood Among Offending Girls

“…We analyzed SRO as severity‐weighted diversity offending scores 6 months prior to entering the facility (T‐1) and 6 months prior to the T‐2 interview (Oudekerk, Erbacher, & Reppucci, ). Participants were asked whether they committed each offense (yes or no).…”