Criminal Risk Assessment, Clinical Judgment of

Clinical judgment in the assessment of offender risk contrasts with mechanical assessment. When clinical judgment is used, the assessment is based on clinical observations or experience, formal theory or informal hypotheses about criminal behavior, grasp of the current status of research on risk assessment, or similar intuitive understandings of risk. Clinical judgment can also be used following the completion of a mechanical or otherwise structured assessment of previously selected risk factors, commonly referred to in the criminal risk assessment field as structured professional judgment. This entry briefly compares unaided clinical risk assessment with mechanical risk assessment tools and considers the nature and role of structured clinical judgment in current risk assessment approaches.

Clinical Judgment Compared With Mechanical Assessment

Clinical judgment in the absence of a formal ...

  • Loading...
locked icon

Sign in to access this content

Get a 30 day FREE TRIAL

  • Watch videos from a variety of sources bringing classroom topics to life
  • Read modern, diverse business cases
  • Explore hundreds of books and reference titles