PSY 3173 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Risk Assessment, Mental Health Professional, Child Protection

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March 8, 2017
Risk Assessment
Learning Objectives
Define the components of risk assessment
List what roles risk assessment plays in Canada
Describe the types of correct and incorrect risk predictions
Differentiate among static, stable, and acute dynamic risk factors
Describe unstructured clinical judgment, actuarial prediction, and structured professional judgment
List the four major types of risk factors
What is Risk Assessment?
Risk is viewed as a range
-Probabilities change across time
-Interaction among offender characteristics and situation - need to look at the context
Risk assessment has 2 components:
-Prediction: probability that the offender will commit future offences
-Management: development of the interventions to manage or reduce the risk of future offending
Extremely important: drives everything that will be done with regards to that particular offender
Risk Assessment: Civil Settings
Civil commitment: offender is involuntarily hospitalized if they have a mental illness and is a potential threat
-Mental health professional will do a risk assessment to determine whether the offender needs to stay in a mental
institution
Child protection: CAFS will do a risk assessment to determine if there is risk of abuse
Immigration laws: assessment will be done to determine whether or not they’re a suitable candidate for immigration
(risk for violence, etc.)
School and labour regulations: determine whether or not a threatening child poses a real threat to other students or
the school at large
Duty to warn: if there is a specific person that’s targeted and there’s a probability that that person is in danger, there is
a duty to warn that person
-This does not qualify as breaking confidentiality, as long as there is a real potential risk
-Disclosure should be limited to only the information necessary to protect the public
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March 8, 2017
-Must present a clear, serious, and imminent danger
Limits of confidentiality
Risk Assessment: Criminal Settings
Risk assessments conducted at major decision points:
-Pretrial
-Sentencing
-Release: will occur at various points of release (ex. maximum security to medium security, parole hearings, day
parole to full parole, etc.)
Will be performed every time circumstances change, including change for the worse or for the better
Public safety outweighs solicitor-client privilege
-Lawyers or expert witnesses can violate privilege if there is a clear threat to public safety
Types of Prediction Outcomes
Two types of errors are dependent on each other
Each outcome has different consequences for the offender or society
-False positive: harms the offender - infringes upon their right to freedom
-False negative: harms the public
Tends to be a higher false positive than false negative rates
History of Risk Assessment
1960s: civil rights cases involving accuracy of mental health professionals in predicting risk - offenders were held for
longer than they should have been, so their rights had been infringed
-Baxstrom v. Herald (1966): Supreme Court ruled that a mentally ill individual had been held too long and released
him
-Dixon v. Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (1971)
Prediction
Outcome
Recidivist
Non-recidivist
High risk
True positive
False positive
Low risk
False negative
True negative
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Document Summary

List what roles risk assessment plays in canada. Describe the types of correct and incorrect risk predictions. Differentiate among static, stable, and acute dynamic risk factors. Describe unstructured clinical judgment, actuarial prediction, and structured professional judgment. List the four major types of risk factors. Interaction among offender characteristics and situation - need to look at the context. Prediction: probability that the offender will commit future offences. Management: development of the interventions to manage or reduce the risk of future offending. Extremely important: drives everything that will be done with regards to that particular offender. Civil commitment: offender is involuntarily hospitalized if they have a mental illness and is a potential threat. Mental health professional will do a risk assessment to determine whether the offender needs to stay in a mental institution. Child protection: cafs will do a risk assessment to determine if there is risk of abuse.

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