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Advanced approaches to predicting offending are increasingly transpiring without the forensic psychology discipline's involvement – an area that it has piloted and influenced for many decades. Computer science experts have built an impressive decade-long literature base on risk assessment – a technical literature that is not only progressing at a fast pace, but appears to function independently, for the most part, from the forensic risk assessment literature. This paper outlines the potential utility of machine learning approaches and the broader 'algorithmic culture', for forensic risk assessment, and the implications their use (and non-use) may have for the discipline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is emerging recognition that positive or pro-social characteristics may lessen criminal propensity. There are now several adult and youth forensic instruments that include protective or strength components. Yet evidence supporting the protective capacities of these instruments with youth offending populations is still developing. This study aimed to identity the prevalence of strength items on the Youth Level of Service/Case Management Inventory tool, and their relationships with risk and re-offending for a cohort of 212 multi-cultural Australian juveniles in custody. The prevalence of strengths in the sample was low, and differed by cultural group. Young people who possessed a strength yielded lower instrument total and domain scores and were more likely to be afforded a lower level of risk compared to youth without a strength. Moreover, youth who possessed a strength were significantly more likely to desist from re-offending. This association remained after controlling for level of risk. Findings point to the importance of strengths when assessing a young person’s risk for re-offending. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Violence risk instruments are administered in medico-legal contexts to estimate an individual’s likelihood of future violence. However, their ostensible limitations; in particular their mono-cultural and risk-centric composition, has drawn academic attention. These concerns may facilitate erroneous risk evaluations for certain non-white populations. Yet it remains unaddressed how cultural differences will be appraised in a risk assessment framework and which specific cultural factors should be considered. Provisions under the Canadian Criminal Code allow forGladueReports, to be sought by judicial officers prior to sentencing Indigenous people.GladueReports provide insights into an Indigenous person’s unique circumstances that may have led to their offending as well as community-based options for rehabilitation. We proffer that there may be value in augmenting the risk evaluation with culturally relevantGladuestyle considerations identified by relevant Indigenous people to provide a more holistic account of an Indigenous individual’s circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]