The Relative Predictive Validity of the Static and Dynamic Domain Scores in Risk-Need Assessment of Juvenile Offenders

Abstract

This study examined the predictive validity of the Australian Adaptation of the Youth Level of Service/Case Management Inventory (YLS/CMI-AA). The focus was on the subcomponents of the inventory, which represent one static and seven dynamic risk-need domains. Reoffending outcomes within 1 year of the inventory were obtained for a large sample ( N = 3,568) of young people under juvenile justice supervision in the community. Logistic regression analyses investigated the relative contribution of YLS domain scores. The results showed that the static and four dynamic domain scores independently predicted recidivism and that the combination of those domain scores yielded a small improvement in prediction. A similar pattern of results was obtained from analyses of the simple additive scores for the YLS domains. The findings support the YLS/CMI-AA total score as a sufficiently useful predictor of risk, and they clarify the contribution of static and dynamic risk components.