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Assessing violence risk among youth
Author(s) -
Borum Randy
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
journal of clinical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.124
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1097-4679
pISSN - 0021-9762
DOI - 10.1002/1097-4679(200010)56:10<1263::aid-jclp3>3.0.co;2-d
Subject(s) - psychology , juvenile , juvenile delinquency , economic justice , human factors and ergonomics , suicide prevention , poison control , injury prevention , criminology , social psychology , developmental psychology , medical emergency , medicine , political science , law , genetics , biology
Despite recent declines in the reported rate of juvenile violence, there appears to be increasing public and professional concern about violent behavior among children and adolescents. Media accounts of school shootings and juvenile homicides have prompted a need to develop approaches for systematically assessing violence risk. This article describes the task of assessing general violence risk among youth, and argues that a somewhat different approach is required to assess cases where an identified or identifiable young person may pose a risk to a specifically identified or identifiable target (also referred to as “targeted violence”). Key risk factors for violent behavior among children and adolescents are identified, fundamental principles for conducting an assessment of violence potential in clinical and juvenile justice contexts are outlined, and an approach to assessment when an identified person engages in some communication or behavior of concern that brings him or her to official attention is briefly described. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Clin Psychol 56: 1263–1288, 2000.