Determining When to Conduct a Violence Risk Assessment: Development and Initial Validation of the Fordham Risk Screening Tool (FRST)

• Published in: Law and human behavior 2017-08, Vol.41 (4), p.325-332
• Main Authors: Rosenfeld, Barry, Foellmi, Melodie, Khadivi, Ali, Wijetunga, Charity, Howe, Jacqueline, Nijdam-Jones, Alicia, Grover, Shana, Rotter, Merrill
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Algorithms; Decision Trees; Female; Hospitals; Human; Humans; Interview, Psychological; Male; Mental Disorders - diagnosis; Middle Aged; New York City; Psychiatric Patients; Psychiatric Status Rating Scales - standards; Psychometrics; Risk Assessment; Risk Assessment - methods; Risk Assessment - standards; Screening Tests; Sensitivity and Specificity; Test Construction; Test Validity; Violence; Violence - psychology; Young Adult
• ISSN: 0147-7307; 1573-661X
• DOI: 10.1037/lhb0000247

Techniques to assess violence risk are increasingly common, but no systematic approach exists to help clinicians decide which psychiatric patients are most in need of a violence risk assessment. The Fordham Risk Screening Tool (FRST) was designed to fill this void, providing a structured, systematic approach to screening psychiatric patients and determining the need for further, more thorough violence risk assessment. The FRST was administered to a sample of 210 consecutive admissions to the civil psychiatric units of an urban medical center, 159 of whom were subsequently evaluated using the Historical Clinical Risk Management-20, version 3, to determine violence risk. The FRST showed a high degree of sensitivity (93%) in identifying patients subsequently deemed to be at high risk for violence (based on the Case Prioritization risk rating). The FRST also identified all of the patients (100%) rated high in potential for severe violence (based on the Serious Physical Harm Historical Clinical Risk Management-20, version 3, summary risk rating). Sensitivity was more modest when individuals rated as moderate risk were included as the criterion (rather than only those identified as high risk). Specificity was also moderate, screening out approximately half of all participants as not needing further risk assessment. A systematic approach to risk screening is clearly needed to prioritize psychiatric admissions for thorough risk assessment, and the FRST appears to be a potentially valuable step in that process.