Female Juvenile Risk

Abstract

There are few risk assessment instruments that address the unique risk factors for female juvenile offenders. Typically, female risk factors are embedded within male risk factors. Thus, the true differences between male and female juveniles may not be explored. In this study, a generic risk assessment instrument was constructed from a pooled sample and used to identify the level of risk posed by females in comparison with males. Though the constructed instrument worked quite efficiently for males, the instrument provided only a marginal improvement over chance prediction of recidivism for youthful female probationers. Lower rates of predictive validity among the female subpopulation supports call for the development of gendered risk assessment instruments.