Psychological assessment of the risk of violence: Scope and limitations for its use in the forensic setting

For some time, in legal and scientific contexts there is concern about the lack of technical criteria for assessing expert evidence by judges and courts, given the influence it can have on judgments. In this paper this concern is addressed in relation to psychological expert evidence of risk of violence, which has acquired a special role with recent penal reforms. The main explanatory keys, according to the authors, of limited predictive ability of the tests most commonly used today for this purpose - actuarial guides, and structured clinical judgment guides - are analyzed, and also the advantages for different legal operators of using these expert tests are presented. Finally, some requirements from the technical point of view, which could provide a critical analysis of expert tests by judges and courts are suggested. (C) 2016 Colegio Oficial de Psicologos de Madrid. Published by Elsevier Espana, S.L.U.