The accuracy of five risk appraisal instruments in predicting institutional misconduct and new convictions

The predictive accuracy of the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised, Level of Service Inventory-Revised, HCR-20, Violence Risk Appraisal Guide, and the Lifestyle Criminality Screening Form were compared in a sample of male offenders. Both correlations and receiver operating characteristics measured the relationship between the instruments and the predictive outcome criteria of institutional misconduct and release failure. Although some instruments performed better across the outcome measures, there were no statistical differences in predictive accuracy among the instruments.