Structured Assessment of Protective Factors (SAPROF)

The SAPROF for violence has been under development since the early 2000s. Arguably, it represents one of the most systematized attempts at creating an adult-focused protective factor assessment tool that mirrors the structure commonly found in other risk assessment tools. It joins a relatively small but growing group of forensic tools incorporating protective or strength-based factors (i.e., any characteristics of an individual person, his or her situation, or environment that may reduce the risk of future violence) into violence risk assessment, such as the Structured Assessment of Violence Risk in Youth, the Inventory of Offender Risk, Need, and Strength, and the Short Term Assessment of Risk and Treatability. This entry addresses the basic structure of the SAPROF and the relationship between protective factors and risk ...