Interrater Reliability and Concurrent Validity of the HCR-20 Version 3

Abstract

We evaluated the interrater reliability and concurrent validity of the HCR-20 Version 3 (HCR-20V3). Three sets of ratings were completed by experienced clinicians for 35 forensic psychiatric patients, for both HCR-20 Versions 2 and 3. Reliability analyses focused on ratings of the presence of Version 3 risk factors, presence of Version 3 risk factor sub-items, relevance ratings for Version 3 risk factors, and Version 3 summary risk ratings for future violence. Concurrent validity analyses focused on the correlational association between Versions 2 and 3 in terms of the number of risk factors present. Findings indicated that Versions 2 and 3 were strongly correlated (.69 – .90). Interrater reliability was consistently excellent for the presence of risk factors and for summary risk ratings. The majority of relevance and sub-item ratings were in the good to excellent range, although there was a minority of such ratings in the fair or poor categories. Findings support the concurrent validity and interrater reliability of HCR-20V3. Implications for use of HCR-20V3 by professionals and agencies are discussed.