NCJ Number
162060
Journal
Criminal Justice and Behavior Volume: 23 Issue: 1 Dated: (March 1996) Pages: 107-120
Date Published
1996
Length
14 pages
Annotation
The constitutionality of violence prediction was a salient legal issue 20 years ago, tort law rather than constitutionality currently frames questions of violence prediction, and actuarial research over the next 20 years is likely to become more common and the role of risk communication may begin to receive sustained empirical attention.
Abstract
Changes in violence prediction between 1974 and 1994 are examined in terms of legal issues related to constitutionality and social science perspectives. The author points out that much more violence prediction research is currently available than in the past and that research methods for predicting violence have substantially changed, to include actuarial risk assessment. He also notes that the law involving violence prediction is likely to be dominated by tort questions for the foreseeable future and that the next 20 years may see more violence prediction research than the last 20 years. Further study is recommended to assess the extent to which the validity of actuarial and other violence prediction methods generalizes to other populations. 40 references