Practitioner’s Guide to COMPAS Core - Northpointe, Inc.

1 practitioner s Guide to COMPAS CoreMarch 19, 2015 ContentsTable of Contentsi1 for Practitioners ..22 Case .. Scores .. of Interpretation .. Theories .. Descriptive Information for the Scales .. of Raw Scale Scores to Decile Scores .. Decile Scores .. Groups ..113 COMPAS Validity and Validity of the COMPAS Risk Scales .. of COMPAS Core Needs Scales .. Validity .. Validity .. Validity .. Consistency Reliability .. Reliability ..254 Treatment Implications for Scales .. Release Risk .. Recidivism .. Recidivism .. Risk Screen .. Counter-Intuitive Predictions .. Need Scales .. Behavioral .. Associates/Peers .. Involvement .. Opportunity .. Personality .. Thinking Self-Report .. Violence.

2 Criminality .. Problems .. History of Non-Compliance .. History of Violence .. Leisure/Boredom .. Residential Instability .. Social Adjustment .. Social Environment .. Social Isolation .. Socialization Failure .. Substance Abuse .. Vocation/Education .. The Lie Scale and Random Responding Test ..455 .. Typology .. Descriptions .. Typology .. Descriptions ..55 Bibliography58 2015 Northpointe Inc., All Rights 1 IntroductionThe practitioner s Guide provides an overview of the COMPAS Core Module in the North-pointe Suite. The Northpointe Suite is an integrated web-based assessment and case manage-ment system for criminal justice practitioners. The Northpointe Suite has modules designedfor pretrial, jail, probation, prison, parole and community corrections applications.

3 COMPASCore is designed for both male and female offenders recently removed from the communityor currently in the community. The practitioner s Guide to COMPAS Core covers case in-terpretation, validity and reliability, and treatment implications. Most of the informationprovided is specific to COMPAS Core. Throughout this text we use the term COMPASCore to distinguish an element (scale, typology, decile type) specific to COMPAS Core fromgeneral elements in the Northpointe Suite, such as scales found in both COMPAS Core andCOMPAS is a fourth generation risk and needs assessment instrument. Criminal justiceagencies across the nation use COMPAS to inform decisions regarding the placement, super-vision and case management of offenders.

4 COMPAS was developed empirically with a focuson predictors known to affect recidivism. It includes dynamic risk factors, and it provides in-formation on a variety of well validated risk and needs factors designed to aid in correctionalintervention to decrease the likelihood that offenders will was first developed in 1998 and has been revised over the years as the knowl-edge base of criminology has grown and correctional practice has evolved. In many wayschanges in the field have followed new developments in risk assessment. We continue tomake improvements to COMPAS based on results from norm studies and recidivism studiesconducted in jails, probation agencies, and prisons. COMPAS is periodically updated tokeep pace with with emerging best practices and technological has two primary risk models: General Recidivism Risk and Violent RecidivismRisk.

5 COMPAS has scales that measure both dynamic risk (criminogenic factors) and staticrisk (historical factors). Additional risk models include the Recidivism Risk Screen and thePretrial Release Risk based risk/needs assessments have become accepted as established and validmethods for organizing much of the critical information relevant for managing offendersin correctional settings (Quinsey, Harris, Rice, & Cormier, 1998). Many research studies12have concluded that objective statistical assessments are, in fact, superior to human judg-ment (Grove, Zald, Lebow, Snitz, & Nelson, 2000; Swets, Dawes, & Monahan, 2000). COM-PAS is a statistically based risk assessment developed to assess many of the key risk andneeds factors in adult correctional populations and to provide information to Guide placementdecisions.

6 It aims to achieve these goals by providing valid measurement and concise orga-nization of important risk/need dimensions. Northpointe recognizes the importance of casemanagement and supports the use of professional judgment along with actuarial risk/needsassessment. Following assessment, a further goal is to help practitioners with case plandevelopment/implementation and overall case management overloaded and crowded criminal justice systems, brevity, efficiency, ease of administrationand clear organization of key risk/needs data are critical. COMPAS was designed to optimizethese practical factors. We acknowledge the trade-off between comprehensive coverage ofkey risk and criminogenic factors on the one hand, and brevity and practicality on theother.

7 COMPAS deals with this trade-off in several was; it provides a comprehensive set ofkey risk factors that have emerged from the recent criminological literature, and it allowsfor customization inside the software. Therefore, ease of use, efficient and effective timemanagement, and case management considerations that are critical to best practice in thecriminal justice field can be achieved through Overview for PractitionersCOMPAS Core is comprised of a total of forty-three scales, including four higher orderscales that use items from several domains and seventeen scales from the women s riskand needs assessment (WRNA) developed by Van Voorhis, Wright, Salisbury, and Bauman(2010). This document provides an overview of COMPAS Core.

8 Supplemental materials areavailable that provide details about the scales not covered in the practitioner s Guide (see, , Measurement and Treatment Implications of the COMPAS Core Scales ).The COMPAS Core assessment is designed to be configurable by the user at decision pointswithin the local criminal justice system and with different populations. For example, Pre-trialServices may choose to use only the Pretrial Release Risk Scale to make recommendations tothe court regarding pre-trial release. Probation may then use the Violent Recidivism Risk andGeneral Recidivism Risk Scales to triage their caseloads by recidivism risk, and choose tocomplete the full assessment only on the higher risk individuals. The full assessment providesa holistic view of the person to address supervision and treatment needs for rehabilitation.

9 2015 Northpointe Inc., All Rights 2 Case IntroductionThis chapter gives an introduction to the interpretation of a COMPAS assessment. Aftercompleting an assessment in the COMPAS software, the practitioner will generally interpretthe bar chart that displays scale scores. The bar chart indicates in what areas the personscores higher or lower that is, which risks or criminogenic needs may exist. The practitionerwill also interpret the type assigned by the typology if enabled by the site. The implicationsfor treatment and intervention are discussed in chapter assessment information is important, yet the information is only helpful when wecan make sense of it and understand how it can inform our case planning and interactionwith the offender. Interpretation skills and activities include accessing and using:1.

10 The assessment results2. The criminological theories used in COMPAS3. The TypologiesA model that everyone can relate to is the medical model for interpretation of informationgathered on a person. Think about the different steps taken in the medical field to find asolution to an illness or a problem. When you don t feel well and you go to the doctor, whatis the first thing that the doctor does Asks about symptoms, when did they start, howsevere are they? She asks about your medical history, are you taking any medications, haveyou had this or a similar problem before? And, she runs tests, takes your temperature, takesyour blood pressure, blood tests, MRIs, etc. What does she do with all of this information?She makes a diagnosis and prescribes an effective interpretation involves connecting the dots to understand the relationship between aperson s criminal behavior and her history, beliefs, and COMPAS ScoresThe COMPAS assessment system consists of predictive risk scales for risk prediction andseparate need scales for identifying program needs in the domains of employment, housing,substance abuse, and others.