Citation

Viljoen JL, Scalora M, Cuadra L, Bader S, Chávez V, Ullman D, Lawrence L. Crim. Justice Behav. 2008; 35(1): 5-23.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0093854807307521

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

As the youth justice system has evolved, clinicians have been increasingly asked to make judgments about the likelihood that a youth who has committed a sexual offense will reoffend. However, there is an absence of well-validated tools to assist with these judgments. This study examined the ability of the Juvenile Sexual Offense Recidivism Risk Assessment Tool--II (J-SORRAT-II), Structured Assessment of Violence Risk in Youth (SAVRY), and Juvenile Sex Offender Assessment Protocol--II (J-SOAP-II) to predict violent behavior in 169 male youth who were admitted to a residential adolescent sex offender program. Total scores on the SAVRY and J-SOAP-II significantly predicted nonsexual violence but none of the instruments predicted sexual violence. The J-SOAP-II and SAVRY were less effective in predicting violent reoffending in youth aged 15 and younger than in older youth. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Keywords: Juvenile justice

Language: en