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Sex Differences in the Measurement Invariance and Factors That Influence Structured Judgments of Risk Using the Structured Assessment of Violence Risk in Youth (SAVRY)

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Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice

Published online on

Abstract

The goals of this study were to test the measurement invariance of the Structured Assessment of Violence Risk in Youth (SAVRY) across sex and to assess whether the same items on the SAVRY influenced practitioners’ judgments about the risk for boys and girls separately. Using administrative data from 292 adjudicated juvenile offenders placed in state custody, we found that the internal structure of risk was invariant across sex. We also found both similarities and differences in the factors used to make judgments about risk across boys and girls. Our results provide support for the use of the SAVRY for boys and girls and supplement previous research examining the predictive validity of the SAVRY, the structured professional judgment framework for juvenile justice risk assessment, and the utility of the SAVRY across gender groups.