Recrafting Youth Risk Assessment: Developing the Modified Positive Achievement Change Tool for Iowa
Document Type
Article
Department or Administrative Unit
Law and Justice
Publication Date
4-25-2019
Abstract
Risk assessments have become prevalent in the juvenile justice field. Many of these tools are adopted off-the-shelf and not adapted to fit the characteristics of a jurisdiction’s justice-involved youth. We examined the Positive Achievement Change Tool (PACT) in Iowa. Although used widely, the PACT is relatively unmodified. We updated the tool via item selection and weighting, gender-specific models and multiple outcomes, developing the Modified Positive Achievement Change Tool (M-PACT) for Iowa. We identified an average predictive accuracy increase of 7%. Evidence of reduced racial disparity was also observed, and research implications outline the need to customize assessments to improve predictive accuracy.
Recommended Citation
Hamilton, Z., Kowalski, M. A., Schaefer, R., & Kigerl, A. (2019). Recrafting Youth Risk Assessment: Developing the Modified Positive Achievement Change Tool for Iowa. Deviant Behavior, 41(10), 1268–1289. https://doi.org/10.1080/01639625.2019.1609302
Journal
Deviant Behavior
Comments
This article was originally published in Deviant Behavior. The full-text article from the publisher can be found here.
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