Accelerating the conceptual use of behavioral health research in juvenile court decision-making: study protocol.

BACKGROUND: The youth criminal-legal system is under heavy political scrutiny with multiple calls for significant transformation. Leaders within the system are faced with rethinking traditional models and are likely to benefit from behavioral health research evidence as they redesign systems. Little is known about how juvenile court systems access and use behavioral health research evidence; further, the field lacks a validated survey measure of behavioral health research use that can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of evidence dissemination interventions for policy and system leaders. Conceptual research use is a particularly salient construct for system reform as it describes the process of shifting awareness and the consideration of new frameworks for action. A tool designed to measure the conceptual use of behavioral health research would advance the field's ability to develop effective models of research evidence dissemination, including collaborative planning models to support the use of behavioral health research in reforms of the criminal-legal system. METHODS: The ARC Study is a longitudinal, cohort and measurement validation study. It will proceed in two phases. The first phase will focus on measure development using established methods of construct validity (theoretical review, Delphi methods for expert review, cognitive interviewing). The second phase will involve gathering responses from the developed survey to examine scale psychometrics using Rasch analyses, change sensitivity analyses, and associations between research use exposure and conceptual research use among juvenile court leaders. We will recruit juvenile court leaders (judges, administrators, managers, supervisors) from 80 juvenile court jurisdictions with an anticipated sample size of n = 520 respondents. DISCUSSION: The study will introduce a new measurement tool for the field that will advance implementation science methods for the study of behavioral health research evidence use in complex policy and decision-making interventions. To date, there are few validated survey measures of conceptual research use and no measures that are validated for measuring change in conceptual frameworks over time among agency leaders. While the study is most directly related to leaders in the youth criminal-legal system, the findings are expected to be informative for research focused on leadership and decision-making in diverse fields.

Alice in actuarial-land: through the looking glass of changing Static-99 norms.

The Static-99, an actuarial rating method, is employed to conduct sexual violence risk assessment in legal contexts. The proponents of the Static-99 dismiss clinical judgment as not empirical. Two elements must be present to apply an actuarial risk model to a specific individual: sample representativeness and uniform measurement of outcome. This review demonstrates that both of these elements are lacking in the normative studies of the Static-99 and its revised version, the Static-99R. Studies conducted since the publication of the Static-99 have not replicated the original norms. Sexual recidivism rates for the same Static-99 score vary widely, from low to high, depending on the sample used. A hypothetical case example is presented to illustrate how the solitary application of the Static-99 or Static-99R recidivism rates to the exclusion of salient clinical factors for identifying sexual dangerousness can have serious consequences for public safety.

Predicting the likelihood of future sexual recidivism: pilot study findings from a California sex offender risk project and cross-validation of the Static-99.

Pilot findings on 137 California sex offenders followed up over 10 years after release from custody (excluding cases in which legal jurisdiction expired) are presented. The sexual recidivism rate, very likely inflated by sample selection, was 31 percent at five years and 40 percent at 10 years. Cumulatively, markers of sexual deviance (multiple victim types) and criminality (prior parole violations and prison terms) led to improved prediction of sexual recidivism (receiver operating characteristic [ROC] = .71, r = .46) than singly (multiple victim types: ROC = .60, r = .31; prior parole violations and prison terms: ROC = .66, r = .37). Long-term Static-99 statistical predictive accuracy for sexual recidivism was lower in our sample (ROC = .62, r =.24) than the values presented in the developmental norms. Sexual recidivism rates were higher in our study for Static-99 scores of 2 and 3 than in the developmental sample, and lower for scores of 4 and 6. Given failures to replicate developmental norms, the Static-99 method of ranking sexual recidivism risk warrants caution when applied to individual offenders.