The HCR-20 Violence Risk Assessment Scheme: Concurrent Validity in a Sample of Incarcerated Offenders

The Historical, Clinical, and Risk Management (HCR-20) violence risk assessment scheme was coded in a sample of 75 Canadian male, federally sentenced, maximum-security offenders. The concurrent validity of the HCR-20 was assessed through comparison to other risk instruments and to the presence of se...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Criminal justice and behavior 1999-03, Vol.26 (1), p.3-19
Main Authors: DOUGLAS, KEVIN S., WEBSTER, CHRISTOPHER D.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Criminology
Historical, Clinical, and Risk Management HCR-20 violence risk assessment scheme
Prisoners
Psychological tests
Risk assessment
Validity
Violence
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Summary:The Historical, Clinical, and Risk Management (HCR-20) violence risk assessment scheme was coded in a sample of 75 Canadian male, federally sentenced, maximum-security offenders. The concurrent validity of the HCR-20 was assessed through comparison to other risk instruments and to the presence of several past indexes of violent and antisocial behavior. The HCR-20 showed moderate to strong relationships with the concurrent measures. The HCR-20 was as or more strongly related to past violence than were the Psychopathy Checklist—Revised or the Violence Risk Appraisal Guide. Scores above the median of the HCR-20 increased the odds of the presence of various measures of past violence and antisocial behavior by an average of four times. Although recognizing the limitations of a small sample and retrospective design, the results give some indication that the HCR-20 may be worth investigating as a useful tool for violence risk assessments in correctional samples.
ISSN:0093-8548
1552-3594
DOI:10.1177/0093854899026001001