NCJ Number
181523
Journal
Law and Human Behavior Volume: 24 Issue: 1 Dated: February 2000 Pages: 137-148
Editor(s)
Richard L. Wiener
Date Published
February 2000
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This study examines how experts communicate their conclusions about the risk of violence toward others.
Abstract
Risk communication has become particularly important in recent years, serving as the link between empirical data and use of such data by evaluators and decision makers. This study considered how psychologists, psychiatrists and sociologists, identified as experts in violence risk assessment, responded to eight vignettes that systematically measured preferences for risk communication. Participants were asked to rate the value of six forms of risk communication for each of the eight vignettes. There were few significant differences between the ratings assigned by psychologists and those assigned by psychiatrists. The most highly valued form of risk communication involved identifying risk factors applicable to the individual and specifying interventions to reduce risk. A repeated-measures mutivariate analysis of variance yielded a main effect for risk level and an interaction between risk level and risk factors. Notes, tables, appendix, references