Compare and contrast actuarial measures and clinical measures of risk assessment

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

• Both actuarial and clinical measures are attempts to assess the likelihood of future violence or future dangerousness.
• Both should be performed by qualified mental health practitioners (e.g., psychologists, psychiatrists, clinical social workers).
• Actuarial measures apply specified "risk factors" to an individual's case. Examples are the person's age, past violent incidents, age of first offense, substance misuse, prior convictions.
• Clinical measures employ a clinician's judgment, based on his or her past experiences with dangerous or violent offenders. These measures may or may not include the same risk factors as those used in actuarial methods.
• Actuarial measures are research based; clinical measures typically are not.
• Actuarial assessments have outperformed clinical assessments in most research studies.
• Actuarial assessments are criticized as being too structured, leaving no room for clinical judgment; clinical assessments are criticized as being based on clinical hunches.
• Many clinicians today advocate a third form of assessment, structured professional judgment, which offers guidance to clinicians on which factors to consider but also enables them to apply additional knowledge based on their clinical experience.