Screenings and Assessments Used in the Juvenile Justice System: Tools for Assessing Sexual Recidivism Risk in Juveniles

• NCJ Number: 244791
• Date Published: February 2011
• Length: 16 pages
• Corporate Author: Administrative Office of the Courts, Judicial Council of California
• Sale Source: Administrative Office of the Courts, Judicial Council of California
• Publication Format: Document (Online)
• Publication Type: Overview Text
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This briefing provides an overview of screening and assessment instruments that may be administered to youth who come into contact with the juvenile justice system.

Abstract

The briefing describes the types of screenings and assessments that are commonly used and highlights the main issues and concerns related to selecting and using these instruments, such as instrument validation, training, tool administration, and interpretation of results. Sections of this publication include: introduction; incident rates; key points on juvenile sex offender risk for recidivism assessment; Federal and California legislation on juvenile sex offenders; assessing juvenile sex offender recidivism risk and whether assessment instruments predict re-offense, what information the instrument can provide, and how the results should be used; and instrument summary of four assessments that have the most research supporting their use with juvenilesJuvenile Sex Offender Protocol-II (J-SOAP-II), the Estimate of Risk of Adolescent Sexual Offense Recidivism (ERASOR), the Juvenile Sexual Offensive Recidivism Risk Assessment Tool-II (JSORRAT-II), and the MEGA. 17 notes