What is it about?
Risk assessment tools predict the likelihood that someone will reoffend. In order to be considered fair, these tools must be shown to be accurate for different groups of people. The study compared how well a youth risk assessment tool predicted reoffending in indigenous compared to non-indigenous youth. The tool predicted similarly in several respects, but it underpredicted reoffending in indigenous youth assessed as low risk and overestimated risk in indigenous youth who did not.
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Why is it important?
Particularly for groups who are already overrepresented in the justice system, including racialized and indigenous people, it is necessary to understand whether risk assessment tools are accurate. Establishing where these tools work and fall short has implications for whether and how they are used in the justice system and provides evidence-based direction for improving them.
Perspectives
I spent a really long time, writing this paper, thinking about the issues, how to address them as comprehensively as possible, and what the findings mean and suggest for policy and practice. It was an amazing opportunity to dig in to a very important and complex issue.
Michele Peterson-Badali
University of Toronto
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Comparing predictive validity of Youth Level of Service/Case Management Inventory scores in Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadian youth., Law and Human Behavior, November 2024, American Psychological Association (APA),
DOI: 10.1037/lhb0000578.
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