The Impact of Confidence on the Accuracy of Structured Professional and Actuarial Violence Risk Judgments in a Sample of Forensic Psychiatric Patients
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2003
Keywords
violence risk assessment, prediction, violence, confidence, clinical judgment
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1023/B:LAHU.0000004887.50905.f7
Abstract
Some previous research indicates that confidence affects the accuracy of probabilistic clinical ratings of risk for violence among civil psychiatric inpatients. The current study investigated the impact of confidence on actuarial and structured professional risk assessments, in a forensic psychiatric population, using community violence as the outcome criteria. Raters completed the HCR-20 violence risk assessment scheme for a sample of 100 forensic psychiatric patients. Results showed that accuracy of both actuarial judgments (HCR-20 total scores) and structured professional judgments (of low, moderate, and high risk) were substantially more accurate when raters were more confident about their judgments. Findings suggest that confidence of ratings should be studied as a potentially important mediator of structured professional and actuarial risk judgments.
Was this content written or created while at USF?
Yes
Citation / Publisher Attribution
Law and Human Behavior, v. 27, issue 6, p. 573-587
Scholar Commons Citation
Douglas, Kevin S. and Ogloff, James R.P., "The Impact of Confidence on the Accuracy of Structured Professional and Actuarial Violence Risk Judgments in a Sample of Forensic Psychiatric Patients" (2003). Mental Health Law & Policy Faculty Publications. 312.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/mhlp_facpub/312
