The current study examined the psychometric properties (factor structure, reliability and validity) of the Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version (PCL:YV; Forth et al., 2003) in Spanish samples of male justice-involved youths between 15 and 22-years old. The PCL:YV was administered to two groups of youths who were incarcerated ( n = 62; n = 95) and a sample of youth on probation ( n = 122). Confirmatory factor analyses showed acceptable-to-good fit for three- and four-factor models. The four-factor hierarchical model with a second-order higher factor representing the whole psychopathy construct was considered for further analyses. PCL:YV scores showed high internal consistency and inter-rater reliability. Low-to-moderate convergence with other measures of psychopathic traits evinced an adequate convergent validity. Convergent and discriminant validity of the PCL:YV total scores were also confirmed considering several measures of psychopathology and personality traits. Importantly, the differential external correlates of the PCL:YV factors provide support for a multidimensional conceptualization of the psychopathy construct. Altogether, these results reveal adequate psychometric properties of the PCL:YV in Spanish population of justice-involved youths and justifies its use to assess psychopathic traits in this kind of populations.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) has a high prevalence and serious consequences for the wellbeing of the victims. The impact of partner violence and the behavior of female victims continue to be poorly understood. Recently, a number of reviews have enhanced the understanding of the needs of female victims of IPV. These reviews improve the evidence base relating to IPV needs assessment and can enhance effectiveness of service provision. The aim of the current study is to review the currency of the knowledge used by social workers working with victims of IPV. We used a qualitative design in which 23 social workers from 10 IPV teams were asked to react to vignettes. Participants were asked what they perceived to be essential for understanding the women's needs and determining an accurate treatment and guidance plan. Data were analyzed using open coding, followed by thematic analysis. Results indicate that in health services planning for battered women, service providers ask about the right domains, including: the characteristics of the relationship, social context, nature and pattern of abuse, characteristics of the female client, and-although to in a lesser degree-characteristics of the partner. Unfortunately, the sub themes within these domains are only partially considered, and sometimes superficially considered. Some topics that were not determined in the literature as relevant needs factors were seen as important by social workers, or assessed too soon, including the stay or leave question. These findings underline the realistic risk that staff members miss the actual reasons women stay with their partners or make certain choices in their help-seeking behavior. Incorrect needs assessments enhance the risk of female victims feeling unheard, and ineffective service provision, leading to care avoidance and low compliance with the services provided.

This longitudinal study explored the existence of, and the transition between, latent classes based on risk/need domains of the Structured Assessment of Violence Risk in Youth (SAVRY). The study included 4,267 male and 661 female justice-involved juveniles who had at least one SAVRY assessment completed between 2006 and 2011. A three-step approach was used for the latent class analyses (LCA): (1) A standard LCA estimated the classes; (2) the class-membership was determined; and (3) latent transition analyses estimated the likelihood of transition between the subgroups. For male adolescents, five latent classes were identified: (a) low risk/needs (36%); (b) low-moderate risk/needs (26%); (c) moderate risk/needs (11%); (d) moderate-high risk/needs (19%); and (e) high risk/needs (8%). For female adolescents, three subgroups were identified: (a) low risk/needs (30%); (b) moderate risk/needs (51%); and (c) high risk/needs (19%). Recidivism rates differentiated the subgroups, and the likelihood of transition within a 12-months timeframe was low.

In deze rubriek laat de redactie van Kind & Adolescent Praktijk een promovendus aan het woord om te vertellen over zijn of haar onderzoek.

Background: Structured risk/need assessment tools are increasingly used to orientate risk reduction strategies with juvenile offenders. The assumption is that the risk/need items on these tools are sufficiently sensitive to measure changes in the individual, family and/or contextual characteristics of juvenile offenders. However, there is very little research demonstrating the capacity of these tools to measure changes in juvenile offenders. Congruent with the developmental and life-course criminology theories (DLC) the objective of this study is to explore the existence of heterogeneous trajectories of juvenile offenders across the juvenile justice system as measured through five empirical risk/need areas based on the Structured Assessment of Violence Risk in Youth (SAVRY), one of the most widely applied risk assessment tools for juveniles. Methods: This longitudinal study included 5205 male juvenile offenders who transitioned through the Catalan juvenile justice system between 2006 and 2014. During intervention they received at least two, and a maximum of seven, consecutive SAVRY risk/need assessments over an 18-month period. The heterogeneity of latent class trajectories was explored through growth mixture modeling (GMM). The trajectory class membership was linked to covariates through multinomial logistic regression analyses. Results: Through GMM three to four heterogeneous trajectories, with high quality of separation, were identified in each of the risk/need areas. The trajectories with low risk/needs (45-77% of the sample) remained low and presented a very limited increase in risk/needs during the 18-month period. The high risk/need trajectories (20-37% of the sample) showed a limited decrease or no change. Between 5 and 13% of the sample had large reductions in their risk/needs levels, and approximately 5% showed a large increase in risk/needs. Conclusions: In line with the DLC theories this study shows that trajectories on criminogenic risk/needs can be heterogeneous and indicate distinct rates of change over time. The results of this study also may suggest a limited sensibility to measure change over time of SAVRY's risk and protective items. Suggestions to improve the sensitivity of measuring change over time, such as shorter time frames or future-oriented time frames for the scoring of the items, are offered.

By constructing risk assessment tools in which the individual items are organized in the same way for male and female juvenile offenders it is assumed that these items and subscales have similar relevance across males and females. The identification of criminogenic needs that vary in relevance for 1 of the genders, could contribute to more meaningful risk assessments, especially for female juvenile offenders. In this study, exploratory factor analyses (EFA) on a construction sample of male (n = 3,130) and female (n = 466) juvenile offenders were used to aggregate the 30 items of the Structured Assessment of Violence Risk in Youth (SAVRY) into empirically based risk/need factors and explore differences between genders. The factor models were cross-validated through confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) on a validation sample of male (n = 2,076) and female (n = 357) juvenile offenders. In both the construction sample and the validation sample, 5 factors were identified: (a) Antisocial behavior; (b) Family functioning; (c) Personality traits; (d) Social support; and (e) Treatability. The male and female models were significantly different and the internal consistency of the factors was good, both in the construction sample and the validation sample. Clustering risk/need items for male and female juvenile offenders into meaningful factors may guide clinicians in the identification of gender-specific treatment interventions.

This study examined the validity and reliability of the Structured Assessment of Violence Risk in Youth (SAVRY), the Youth Level of Service/Case Management Inventory (YLS/CMI), and the Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version (PCL:YV) in a sample of Spanish adolescents with a community sanction (N = 105). Self-reported delinquency with a follow-up period of 1 year was used as the outcome measure. The predictive validity of the three measures was compared with the unstructured judgment of the juvenile's probation officer and the self-appraisal of the juvenile. The three measures showed moderate effect sizes, ranging from area under the curve (AUC) = .75 (SAVRY) to AUC = .72 (PCL:YV), in predicting juvenile reoffending. The two unstructured judgments had no significant predictive validity whereas the SAVRY had significantly higher predictive validity compared with both unstructured judgments. Finally, SAVRY protective factor total scores and SAVRY summary risk ratings did not add incremental validity over SAVRY risk total scores. The high base rates of both violent (65.4%) and general reoffending (81.9%) underline the need for further risk assessment and management research with this population.

There is specific controversy over the most suitable factor structure for the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R), the leading measure of psychopathy. This controversy extends to the adolescents version, the Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version (PCL:YV; Forth, Kosson and Hare, 2004). The internal structure of the PCL:YV was examined in a sample of 240 young male offenders. Confirmatory factor analyses indicated that 4-factor parceled solution (Neumann, Kosson, Forth, & Hare, 2006) provided the best fit to the data, followed by the Cooke and Michie's 3-factor, and the Hare's (2003) 4-factors. One-factor model and 2-factors model (Hare, 1991) were less adequate. Results supported the structure of the technical manual of the PCL:YV and other empirical studies.

This study examined the validity and reliability of the Structured Assessment of Violence Risk in Youth (SAVRY), the Youth Level of Service/Case Management Inventory (YLS/CMI), and the Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version (PCL:YV) in a sample of Spanish adolescents with a community sanction ( N = 105). Self-reported delinquency with a follow-up period of 1 year was used as the outcome measure. The predictive validity of the three measures was compared with the unstructured judgment of the juvenile’s probation officer and the self-appraisal of the juvenile. The three measures showed moderate effect sizes, ranging from area under the curve (AUC) = .75 (SAVRY) to AUC = .72 (PCL:YV), in predicting juvenile reoffending. The two unstructured judgments had no significant predictive validity whereas the SAVRY had significantly higher predictive validity compared with both unstructured judgments. Finally, SAVRY protective factor total scores and SAVRY summary risk ratings did not add incremental validity over SAVRY risk total scores. The high base rates of both violent (65.4%) and general reoffending (81.9%) underline the need for further risk assessment and management research with this population.

This study investigates if perceived self-efficacy during an emergency situation has a protective role in the development of posttraumatic stress symptoms among Italian and Spanish survivors of several emergency situations. We explored the impact of self-efficacy in a multiple regression model including other predictors of posttraumatic stress symptoms, such as emergency prevention knowledge; trust in emergency services; risk perception of becoming a victim of an emergency situation; and conscious and active behaviors in comparison with no conscious and no active behavior during the emergency. We carried out a retrospective study recruiting 214 participants who reported their experience as victims of one specific emergency event. Results showed that survivors who perceived themselves as more self-efficacious during the traumatic event had less posttraumatic stress symptoms. In contrast, female gender, more self-threat perception and higher trauma severity were associated with more symptoms. Findings contribute to better understand human behavior in emergency situations and evidence the protective role of perceived self-efficacy beliefs among survivors of emergency situations.

The Leave Risk Assessment (LRA) is an actuarial risk assessment tool composed of both historical and treatment-related subscales, developed to assess the risk of serious reoffending by forensic psychiatric patients. This study examines the psychometric properties of the Leave Risk Assessment. The sample was drawn from the same population on which the tool was developed consisting of 195 Dutch forensic psychiatric patients; 78 who re-offended during leave and 117 non-reoffenders. The Leave Risk Assessment had moderate predictive validity (AUC = .84) as well as incremental predictive value over the HCR-20. The results show that the LRA can have a significant contribution in the decision-making process regarding authorized leave.