The Impact of Professional Overrides on Predictive Validity and Recidivism

• In Event: Risk Assessment in Correctional Populations

Abstract

The ability for criminal justice actors to professionally override the results of a risk assessment tool is an essential part of the foundations for effective correctional classification (Andrews, Bonta, and Hoge, 1990). To date, there has been little research into the impact of the professional override. However, one recent study suggests that 1) professionals misuse the override function by only focusing on increasing the predicted risk level and 2) the use of the professional override will diminish the overall predictive validity of the assessment tool (Wormith, Hogg, and Guzzo, 2012). As a result, these researchers have cautioned professionals against over-using this function until the impact of overrides has been truly realized. This presentation will use risk assessment data from the Ohio Youth Assessment System – Disposition (OYAS-DIS) to explore the impacts of using professional overrides. Specifically, this presentation explores the impact to the predictive validity of the tool as well as whether youth that had their risk assessment overridden fair worse (in terms of recidivism) compared to similarly situated youth.

Author

• James McCafferty, Kennesaw State University