Citation

Roaldset JO, Hartvig P, Bjørkly S. Int. J. Law Psychiatry 2017; 54: 133-139.

Affiliation

Oslo University Hospital, Centre of Research and Education in Forensic Psychiatry, Box 4956, Nydalen, 0424, Oslo, Norway; Molde University College, Box 2110, 6402 Molde, Norway.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.ijlp.2017.06.007

PMID

28668227

Abstract

The Violence Risk Screening - Police Version (V-RISK-POL) is a seven-item screening tool for use at police stations by police officers and law enforcement officials to assist in the process of decision making regarding release, restrictive measures or arrest for apprehended individuals where the risk of future violence must be considered. The screen is based on the V-RISK-10, originally developed for emergency psychiatry. We examined psychometric properties and the prospective predictive validity of future violent convictions for the V-RISK-POL in a sample of 111 persons arrested for suspicion of violent crimes. Seventeen persons were convicted for a new violent crime committed during the 24-40months follow-up. The V-RISK-POL demonstrated good internal consistency; Cronbach's alpha=0.81 (95% CI=0.75-0.86) and moderate predictive validity; the area under the curve of the receiving operator characteristics (AUC)=0.753 (95% CI=0.644-0.843). Further research on larger and more heterogeneous samples is necessary to examine whether the screen may be useful in the police context.

Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

Police officers; Prospective; Risk assessment; Screen; Violence recidivism