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What's risk got to do with it: Judges' and probation officers' understanding and use of juvenile risk assessments in making residential placement decisions
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

What's risk got to do with it: Judges' and probation officers' understanding and use of juvenile risk assessments in making residential placement decisions

Jeanne McPhee, Kirk Heilbrun, Denise Navarre Cubbon, Mark Soler and Naomi E Goldstein
Law and human behavior, v 47(2), pp 320-332
Apr 2023
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/lhb0000528
PMID: 37053385
Featured in Collection :   UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
url
https://doi.org/10.1037/lhb0000528View
Published, Version of Record (VoR)CC BY V4.0,  Open

Abstract

This hypothetical vignette-based experiment was designed to better understand judges' and probation officers' interpretations and use of juvenile risk assessment tools in their decision-making around restrictive sanctions and confinement of youths on the basis of the youths' risk level and race. We expected that estimates of the probability of juvenile recidivism would significantly mediate the relationship between a categorical risk descriptor and decisions regarding the ordering confinement of youths. We also hypothesized that youths' race would serve as a significant moderator in the model. Judicial and probation staff (N = 309) read a two-part vignette about a youth who was arrested for the first time; in this vignette, race (Black, White) and risk level (low, moderate, high, very high) of the youth were varied. Participants were asked to estimate the likelihood that the youth would recidivate in the following year and their likelihood of ordering or recommending residential placement. Although we found no simple, significant relationship between risk level and confinement decisions, judicial and probation staff estimated higher likelihoods of recidivism as risk-level categories increased and ordered out-of-home placements at increased rates as their estimations of the youth's likelihood of recidivation increased. The youth's race did not moderate the model. The greater the probability of recidivism, the more likely each judge or probation officer was to order or recommend out-of-home placement. However, importantly, legal decisionmakers appeared to apply categorical risk assessment data to their confinement decisions using their own interpretations of risk category rather than being guided empirically on the basis of risk-level categories.

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11 Record Views
3 citations in Web of Science
3 citations in Scopus

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UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
#3 Good Health and Well-Being

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Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Law
Psychology, Social
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