The Structured Assessment of Protective Factors for Violence Risk (SAPROF)

The Structured Assessment of Protective Factors for violence risk (SAPROF) is the only structured professional judgment (SPJ) checklist that focuses solely on protective factors. It is intended to be used alongside comprehensive SPJ violence risk assessment measures such as those described in this book. The purpose of developing the SAPROF was to provide balance to the risk assessment and management process, by ensuring that strengths or protective factors are systematically represented in such evaluations. This chapter reviews the development process of the SAPROF, its administration process, and several other complementary SAPROF guides (for example, the youth version of the SAPROF). It includes a comprehensive review of reliability and validity studies (which provide strong support for the SAPROF) and a case example illustrating how the SAPROF can be used for violence risk assessment and management.