The LSI-R and the COMPAS: Validation Data on Two Risk-Needs Tools
Criminal Justice and Behavior, Vol. 35, Issue 9 (September 2008), pp. 1095-1108
15 Pages Posted: 5 May 2021
Date Written: September 1, 2008
Abstract
Over the past two decades, the role of risk-needs assessment in the criminal justice system has increased substantially. This study provides validation data on the Level of Service Inventory-Revised (LSI-R) and the Correctional Offender Management Profiling for Alternative Sanctions (COMPAS) using a large male cohort (N = 975) with a substantial proportion of ethnic minority offenders. In comparing the predictive validity of these tools, the authors employed a retrospective, archival, known-groups design to study outcomes of offenders released into the community from New Jersey prisons between 1999 and 2002, with a post-release outcome period of 12 months. The results indicate that both the LSI-R composite score and the COMPAS recidivism score have inconsistent validity when tested on different ethnic/racial populations. Furthermore, the results suggest that different ethnic/racial groups have varying risk and needs factors that predict recidivism.
Keywords: Risk, Recidivism, Risk-needs tools, LSI-R, COMPAS
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation