The Predictive Validity of the Structured Assessment of Violence Risk in Youth for Young Spanish Offenders

Elena Ortega-Campos; Juan García-García; Flor Zaldívar-Basurto

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00577

The Predictive Validity of the Structured Assessment of Violence Risk in Youth for Young Spanish Offenders

Front Psychol. 2017 Apr 12:8:577. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00577. eCollection 2017.

Authors

Elena Ortega-Campos¹, Juan García-García¹, Flor Zaldívar-Basurto¹

Affiliation

¹ Standing Seminar on Juvenile Justice, Psychology Department, University of AlmeríaAlmería, Spain.

Abstract

The present study examined the predictive validity of the Structured Assessment of Violence Risk in Youth (SAVRY) in a group of young Spanish offenders. The sample is made up of 594 minors from the Juvenile Court, between the ages of 14 and 18 at the time they committed the delinquent act. The SAVRY was able to differentiate between low and high-risk younger offenders. Mean scores on risk factor are greater in the group of recidivist offenders, the group of non-recidivist shows higher mean scores in Protective domain. The accuracy of the instrument is high (AUC_{RiskTotalScore} = 0.737 and AUC_{SummaryRiskRating} = 0.748). An approximation of the predictive validity study of the SAVRY in Spanish younger offenders is presented. The results obtained support the SAVRY good functioning with not English samples.

Keywords: SAVRY; predictive validity; recidivism; risk assessment; younger offenders.