Risk Factors Associated with Juvenile Violence
The factors that are associated with future risk for violence are many, and so sometimes may vary between populations and settings. This week’s Discussion focuses on the violence risk factors associated with juveniles, and asks you to explore how you might best assess for these specific risk factors. By applying your knowledge of assessment tools and procedures to risk factors associated with juvenile violence, you may better appreciate some of the challenges associated with these types of assessments.

To prepare for this Discussion:

• Review Chapter 15 in the course text, Learning Forensic Assessment. Pay particular attention to the violence risk factors that are specific to conducting violence risk assessments of juveniles, as well as to the contexts of these types of risk assessments and the instruments that may be used for them.

• Using the Walden Library, find a peer-reviewed article or articles discussing at least two violence risk factors associated with juvenile violence. Consider how these risk factors might be assessed.

• Review the course document, “Juvenile Violence Risk Assessment Instruments.” Review the descriptions of these instruments in your course text and/or in the Mental Measurements Yearbook database. Select an instrument that you might use for assessing each of the two risk factors you researched, and consider how and why you might use these instruments.

With these thoughts in mind:

Post by Day 4 a brief description of the article(s) you selected and how it pertains to at least two violence risk factors associated with juveniles. Then, briefly describe an assessment instrument that you might use to assess each risk factor. Explain why you selected each assessment instrument.

Note: Put the risk factors you described in the first line of your post. You will be asked to respond to a colleague who selected at least one risk factor that you did not. Be sure to support your postings and responses with specific references to the Learning Resources.
.