Inter-rater reliability of recidivism risk assessments of the high-risk convicted

Abstract

Recidivism risk assessment in the penal system has significantly advanced, and today assessment instruments are in use that should contribute to more effective treatment of convicts. However, despite the efforts invested in the development and enhancement of the instruments, there are still certain problems in their application, which researchers and practitioners strive to eliminate or minimize. In accordance with the aforementioned, the aim of this paper is to examine the interrater reliability of the Questionnaire for Assessing Risk, Capacity and Needs of convicts in the prison system of the Republic of Serbia. The study was conducted in three penitentiaries (Požarevac, Sremska Mitrovica and Niš) on a sample of 54 convicted persons who were assessed as having a high or extremely high recidivism risk in the reception department and 35 employed professional staff members. The obtained data indicate a moderate agreement (0.637) measured by Cohen's Kappa coefficient, and an absolute agreement among of the evaluators in 88.9% of cases. On the other hand, absolute agreement of the evaluators, when looking at the recidivsm risk score, exists in only 7 cases. It was found that the largest number of items have a moderate agreement, as well as that the static recidivism risk factors were most consistently evaluated. The findings of our research show that the instrument has moderate rater agreement, on a sample of a high recidivism risk offenders, but also that there are certain problems that affect interobserver reliability.