The Prospective Prediction of Community Violence after Release from Prison with the Risk Screener Violence (RS-V)

The prevention of community violence is a key issue for the criminal justice system due to its significant impact on victims and society. Within Dutch prisons, the recently implemented easy-to-use Risk Screener Violence (RS-V) enables the early detection of violent behaviors among incarcerated individuals in support of timely intervention. The current prospective study found sound predictive validity of RS-V's rated by prison staff for violent (re)offending 6 and 12 months after release from prison. Predictive accuracy was higher for violent recidivism than general recidivism. These results indicate that the RS-V may contribute to overall risk management. However, effective intervention strategies and risk communication are essential.