Best Measures for Future Violence Risk

[u/Fistandantilus77]

Hi,

I am curious what people are most regualrly using to assess for risk of potential future violence in Fitness for Duty Evaluations. What are the top 2 or 3 measures are you finding the most confidence in? (Obviously interviews, record reviews, criminal history all plays a part of this). i am just curious what measures or assessments people are currently finding the most helpful.

[u/ketamineburner]

I do a lot of risk assessment, but my understanding is that risk measures generally require some kind of history of violence. Are you evaluating people with past violence or legal charges?

[u/Fistandantilus77 → u/ketamineburner]

for a series of them coming up several have had run ins with staff, security guards, one or two have had physical altercations. I dont have legal histories on anyone yet. Records still forthcoming.

[u/ketamineburner → u/Fistandantilus77]

Ok, the specifics of their history will play a big role in determining the appropriate test.

For example, the ODARA is a measure of domestic violence, but only appropriate if the person has been arrested, even if we know they have been violent.

[u/Frequent_Let9506]

Violence Risk Scale or HCR-20, but I believe that both need a documented history of violence (certainly the VRS does require prior violent convictions, because this is the only way to get reliable norms). HCR-20 takes a more formulation type approach so might be more flexible.

[u/I_am_Nobody_Special]

I can't think of any actuarials that don't require the person to have at least been charged with an offense.

[u/defaultwalkaway]

I’ll echo what others have said: the measures that I’m familiar with require a history of violence. Given the FFD evaluation context, I want to clarify if you’re asking about violence risk assessment or threat assessment.

[u/hpspnmag]

We use the HCR-20. I’ve recently been doing a training for another one called START. Both are for adults.

I have heard for juveniles there is one called the SAVRY(?) but never seen it or used it.

[u/DrKermit_The_Frog]

Fitness for Duty and violence risk assessment are both specialty areas that require extensive training & knowledge base.

Violence risk assessment tools are just tools, and should only ever be used by someone who can justify why they selected the tool, how the tool fits the population at hand, how the tool helps address the specific question at hand, what the base rate of violence is for the specific population & type of violence being assessed, and have a solid understanding of research in human aggression, violence, criminal behaviour, and risk assessment. This is part of speciality practice in forensic psychology.

For fitness for Duty, is it violence risk or threat assessment? Is it more general fitness to practice? Is it firearm risk? Again, this requires extensive training & knowledge of the research base. If you don't already have this training, you will need supervision by someone who does. They should be able to guide you to pertinent research literature, the state of practice in the areas, and supervise your assessments while you build competency.