RE: Risk Assessment Instruments

["Lyle, Gene" <Gene.Lyle@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Peter,

I would suggest you contact the American Humane Assn. for copies of the
proceedings from their long series of annual Risk Assessment Roundtables (I
believe they just finished their 13th). There is an e-mail link on their web
page at www.americanhumane.org. 

You might also check with the National Council on Crime and Delinquency,
Children's Research Center, as they have done much of the research regarding
Structured Decision Making (SDM). Their web page is at www.nccd-crc.org
(although it seems to be down at the moment).

SDM is the Risk Assessment "du jour" here and many states and local
jurisdictions, including my own, are installing it or have already installed
it - California, Michigan, New Mexico, etc. However, it's probably too early
to assess its impact on court decisions - at least I know of no articles on
the topic yet. Anecdotally, I am aware that some judges and referees put a
little more faith in SDM than in less rigorous risk assessments. I don't
have a clue about public perception. As a technology, SDM is really too new
to have come to the public's attention yet, I believe.

There is a fair amount of research re: reliability and validity of SDM and
you'll run across that as you research the topic.

With regard to political issues, the answer is "Yes" but where is that never
true?!

Gene Lyle
Office of Performance Measurement & Evaluation
RCCHSD
St. Paul, MN

 

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Peter Dale [SMTP:pdale@drdale.demon.co.uk]
> Sent:	Saturday, July 22, 2000 1:00 PM
> To:	Child Maltreatment Researchers
> Subject:	Risk Assessment Instruments
> 
> A couple of colleagues and myself at the National Society for the
> Prevention
> of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC)in the UK are interested in updating our
> knowledge about the implementation of child protection Risk Assessment
> Instruments in USA, Canada, Australia (and elsewhere).
> 
> The most recent review we have seen is DePanfilis, Daro & Wells (eds)
> APSAC
> Advisor Special Issue on Risk Assessment, 8, 4, Winter 1995.
> 
> We would appreciate being pointed to more up to date reviews and
> discussion
> documents. We are particularly interested in the extent to which recent
> reviews have commented on reliability/validity of the various RAI's,
> recent
> developments in design and operation of RAI's, outcomes following use of
> RAI's in courts, and public/service users perceptions and responses/views
> about RAI's. Also, are there any political issues re use of RAI's?
> 
> Any pointers and views greatly welcomed!
> 
> Peter Dale (PhD)
> NSPCC, East Sussex, UK