The Classification of Violence Risk (COVR) is an interactive software program designed to estimate the risk that an acute psychiatric patient will be violent to [Page 93]others over the next several months. Using a laptop or a desktop computer, COVR guides the evaluator through a brief chart review and a 10-minute interview with the patient. COVR generates a report that places the patient's violence risk in one of five categories—ranging from a 1% likelihood of violence in the first category to a 76% likelihood of violence in the highest category, including the confidence interval for the given risk estimate.

The software was constructed from data generated in the MacArthur Violence Risk Assessment Study. In brief, more than 1,000 patients in acute civil psychiatric facilities were assessed ...