Intervention Principles and Practice Guidelines for - Underage ...

Screening
Jack and Jill are referred by the police to a community corrections professional
in their county who will help make a determination about what should happen with
their cases. When the community corrections professional administers the CRAFFT
screening tool on Jack, he answers “no” to all six questions—indicating, that unless
we get contradictory evidence elsewhere, he likely does not have a problem with
alcohol abuse that would require further assessment. However, Jill answers “yes” to
three of the six questions on the screening tool, which signals to us that she may have
some more serious issues related to alcohol or other substance abuse.
What should your next steps be with Jack and Jill?
Practice Guideline 2
Assess the risk and needs of youth
An actuarial assessment of a youth’s risk and needs is considered
the foundation of evidence-based practice. The purpose of this type of
assessment in the justice system is to identify youth who are the most
likely to reoffend and to identify their needs. In particular, if focuses on
dynamic factors, that is, those factors in which the offenders can change
throughout their lives.
Once the individual has been assessed and the community
corrections professional verifies the information collected, youth can be
classified according to risk, and the most intensive interventions can be
directed to youth with the highest probability of reoffending (Crime and
Justice Institute, 2004).
This type of assessment is a more objective way of collecting data
than are the professional judgments that community corrections
professionals make based on their experiences working with juveniles
and young adults.
Actuarial assessments of risk are not unlike how an insurance
company determines a driver’s level of risk for being involved in an
accident to determine insurance rates. Insurance companies do not
rely on professional discretion as the primary method to determine an
individual drivers’ risk. Within a justice context, research shows that data
gathered through a risk/needs assessment is more predictive of future
problems than professional judgment alone (Bonta & Andrews, 2007).
Risk principle tells us
who we should target for
intervention and services
(i.e., high-risk offenders).
Need principle tells us
what issues we need to
target with services and
programs to facilitate
behavior change.
Dynamic factors
are those factors in an
individual’s life that can
be changed (e.g., peer
associations, current
substance abuse).
Static factors are
factors that are historical
or not amenable to
change (e.g., age, past
criminal history).
39