Factors in Assessing Recidivism Risk in Young Offenders

Abstract

The research aims to identify if the accumulation of protective and/or risk factors might predict the risk of recidivism in juvenile delinquents and determine the relative weight of both types of factors in the predictions themselves. The risk of criminal recidivism was assessed with the Structured Assessment of Violence Risk in Youth—SAVRY—instrument based on a sample of 192 Adolescents in Conflict with the Law—ACLs—held in juvenile detention centers in the Valencian Community (Spain). The results show that protective variables have greater relative consistency than risk variables when assessing recidivism risk in ACLs. The paper’s findings enable advances in the identification of antisocial behavior patterns using positive variables, and this in turn involves modifying any intervention proposals made by professionals of juvenile justice because psycho-socio-educational processes can now be dealt with on the basis of the ACLs’ potentialities (protective factors) rather than their deficiencies (risk factors) alone.

Assessing the Interactions between Strengths and Risk Factors of Recidivism through the Structured Assessment of Violence Risk in Youth (SAVRY)

“…The results indicate that the SAVRY adequately distinguishes between recidivist vs. non-recidivist young offenders. The young offenders presented significantly higher scores in the risk domains of the instrument, while the non-recidivists presented a higher score in the protective domain [37]. These results concur with those obtained in different studies with both English-speaking and non-English-speaking young offenders.…”

“…The presence of a greater number of protective factors in the group of non-recidivist young offenders supports the thesis of the importance of such factors in reducing or preventing criminal recidivism in juvenile justice [13,26,47]. Protective factors are predictive and they play an active role in preventing juvenile recidivism [19,37,48]. Given the fundamental role of protective factors in reducing criminal behavior, it is essential that the different instruments for assessing risk of recidivism include the protective factors presented by the young offenders.…”

“…These results concur with those obtained in different studies with both English-speaking and non-English-speaking young offenders. In this way, the SAVRY has demonstrated adequate functioning and discrimination between recidivist vs. non-recidivist young offenders, regardless of the nationality of the study [29,37,38].…”

Delincuencia violenta, abuso y no consumo de drogas en adolescentes con riesgo de reincidencia

“…Los más utilizados son el Inventario de Gestión e Intervención para Jóvenes (Youth Level Service/ Case Management Inventory) (Hoge y Andrews, 2006) y la Evaluación estructurada del riesgo de violencia en la juventud (Structured Assesment of Violence Risk in Youth [SAVRY]) (Borum et al, 2003). Los investigadores que estudian la delincuencia violenta consideran al SAVRY como herramienta referencial (Lodewijks et al, 2010;Navarro-Pérez et al, 2020;Schmidt et al, 2011). El SAVRY es un cuestionario que incluye factores de protección que interaccionan con variables de riesgo; además, permite identificar diferentes niveles de riesgo y colabora en la creación de programas dependiendo del nivel de vulnerabilidad del sujeto.…”

Psychosocial and Personality Characteristics of Juvenile Offenders in a Detention Centre regarding Recidivism Risk

“…Different factors have been associated with criminal behaviour, both personal factors, such as impulsivity, and factors related to school, family, or peers (Leverso et al, 2015). Specifically, juvenile offenders primarily present socialization issues, emotional-intelligence deficits, and inadequate coping strategies (Navarro-Pérez et al, 2020).…”