NCJ Number
197346
Date Published
September 1998
Length
122 pages
Annotation
The purpose of this research study of youths who were released to the community between July 1993 to June 30, 1995, was to measure the empirical validity of the Initial Security Classification Assessment (ISCA) to accurately predict recidivism by juvenile offenders in Washington State for a 30-month period.
Abstract
The ISCA assessment procedure combines a risk level with a current offense-seriousness level to determine a youth's initial security classification. This article reports on the contract between the Juvenile Rehabilitation Administration (JRA) and the Washington State Institute for Public Policy to re-examine the capability of the ISCA to predict recidivism; examine the capability of the Community Risk Assessment to predict recidivism; design an evaluation of the Washington State Sex Offender Screening Tool (SOST) and the Sexually Aggressive and Vulnerable Youth Residential Screen; recommend a process for selecting the highest-risk youth for participation in Intensive Parole, including a risk assessment instrument for use while on Intensive Parole; and compare those assessments with national models and seek a review by national experts. This report contains the findings of this examination including the following: that the ISCA validly predicts 18-month felony recidivism, a youth's Community Risk Assessment (CRA) score changes modestly from the youth's initial to last assessment, a retrospective validation design for SOST is feasible, the Institute recommends using the ISCA to initially screen youth for Intensive Parole, and a review of the national research on recidivism risk assessments indicates the ISCA contains items typically found on juvenile risk assessments, and the predictive capability of the ISCA is typical of that found in the research literature. Some recommendations include that JRA work with the juvenile courts and adult corrections to develop common definitions for risk levels, that JRA modify the CRA to be used in conjunction with the modified ISCA for group home placement decisions, continued use of the ISCA in combination with the CRA for security reclassification and group home placement, and assessment of youth while they are being supervised in the community. Appendices include information on correlations among ISCA items, categorization of delinquency predictors, strength of relationship between additional variables, group home criminal activity survey, and a summary of risk factors.