ABSTRACT
Risk assessment has always been viewed as important but at the same time it has attracted vigorous criticism. There are no settings in which risk assessment has received such an ambivalent welcome as in the criminal justice system, and in the forensic mental health services, correctional facilities and parole boards. Risk assessment has become relevant to a wide range of criminal and civil decisions, such as pre-charge diversion, pre-trial detention, eligibility for alternative measures and suitability for treatment programmes (Hoge et al., 2012), becoming one of the most required professional competences expected of professionals (Elbogen, 2002; Grisso & Tomkins, 1996). It has been mostly employed to predict serious criminal behaviour (Andrews et al., 2006; Bonta, 2002; Maden, 2003), social (Gulotta & Vittoria, 2002a, b; Mulvey & Lidz, 1995) and psychiatric dangerousness (Fornari, 2008; Freilone, 2011), violence (Gray et al., 2011; Maden, 2005), and criminal recidivism (Mulvey & Lidz, 1998; Rice & Harris, 1995; Webster & Hucker, 2007).
