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Abstract
The Swedish Prison and Probation Service (SPPS) provides risk-reducing interventions tailored to clients’ recidivism risk, with the intake assessment RNR-A informing sentence plans. This study tested the predictive utility of the RNR-A in a cohort of 3,145 clients (M_age = 39 years, 2% women) convicted of intimate partner violence (IPV). During 24 months of follow-up, IPV reconvictions (10% overall) increased significantly with each increase in risk level (low, medium, high). Discrimination performance was comparable to similar instruments (AUC range = .59–.68). A high proportion of IPV recidivists were classified as medium-to-high risk (sensitivity range = 87–95%) at the cost of over-inclusion of non-recidivists in these risk levels (specificity range = 13–27%). This study contributes to broader efforts to evaluate the implementation of Bonta and Andrews’ (2017) risk principle in the SPPS and supports the use of the RNR-A to screen out those clients with the least need of IPV-specific intervention. Further instrument development and calibration in combination with the use of in-depth assessments for complex medium-to-high risk cases may increase the potential of effective service delivery, providing intensive and extensive services to clients with the greatest risk and needs.
Citation
Starfelt Sutton, L. C., Persson, B. N., & Danielsson, M. (2023). Predicting intimate partner violence recidivism using the Swedish Prison and Probation Service’s Risk-Need-Responsivity Assessment (RNR-A). Nordic Journal of Criminology, 24(1), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.18261/njc.24.1.4
@article{SPD23,
author = {Louise C. Starfelt Sutton and Björn N. Persson and Maria Danielsson},
year = {2023},
title = {Predicting Intimate Partner Violence Recidivism Using the Swedish Prison and Probation Service's Risk-Need-Responsivity Assessment (RNR-A)},
journal = {Nordic Journal of Criminology},
volume = {24},
number = {1},
pages = {1--20},
doi = {10.18261/njc.24.1.4}}