Record Status This is a bibliographic record of a published health technology assessment from a member of INAHTA. No evaluation of the quality of this assessment has been made for the HTA database. Citation Guo B, Harstall C. Risk assessment tools for predicting recidivism of spousal violence. Edmonton: Institute of Health Economics (IHE). January 2008. 2008 Authors' objectives To assess the research evidence on the inter-rater reliability and predictive validity of various risk assessment instruments in predicting male-to-female spousal violence recidivism and lethality in those males who had contact with the police system.
Authors' conclusions All instruments under evaluation demonstrated improvement over chance in predicting spousal violence recidivism; however, no conclusion could be made regarding the superiority of one tool over another at this time. Although lethal assault is of the greatest concern, the included studies failed to provide any information on how well these instruments (even the DA) predict lethal assault. Current research evidence on the predictive validity of these instruments has been exclusively based on measuring non-lethal reassault.
The decision on selecting an appropriate risk assessment instrument needs to take into account factors such as the available research evidence, the population under assessment, the intended users of the instrument, and the Spousal Violence Against Women: Preventing Recurrence v purpose for conducting an assessment. The DA may be most appropriately used by clinicians, victim advocates, or social workers in women's shelters, hospitals, and women-s treatment programs. The ODARA, on the other hand, may be more appropriately applied by law enforcement personnel. The SARA may not be an optimal instrument for use by law enforcement personnel but it provides an immediate opportunity for the development of a comprehensive treatment plan for the assaulter.
Because the research evidence available on the predictive validity of risk assessment instruments is very limited, it would be inappropriate to make any decision of an individual-s risk of recidivism based solely on the scores of the instruments being used. Information from all other sources, such as women-s perceptions of risk, and records in the justice system, should be gathered to make more accurate predictions.
The Alberta Mental Health Board is in a unique situation where both the SARA and the ODARA are being applied to the target population of interest and within the local context. Data gathered during the implementation of the Provincial Family Violence Treatment Program using these risk assessment tools will provide valuable information regarding their predictive validity and the initiation of a classification system of recidivism severity. This implementation and evaluation process will allow a direct comparison of the predictive validity of the SARA, the ODARA, or a combination of both, in the subgroup of male abusers who were referred to the treatment program, to see whether the combination of the two tools would improve predictive validity. Findings from this process would be helpful to determine whether a composite tool that fits the Alberta context could be developed and used province-wide.
INAHTA brief and checklist Indexing Status Subject indexing assigned by CRD MeSH Humans; Risk Assessment; Social Behavior Disorders; Violence Language Published English Country of organisation Canada English summary An English language summary is available. Address for correspondence #1200, 10405 Jasper Avenue, Edmonton, AB T5J 3N4, Canada. Tel: +1 780 448 4881, Fax: +1 780 448 0018 Email: info@ihe.ca AccessionNumber 32008000091 Date bibliographic record published 02/10/2007 Date abstract record published 02/10/2007 |
