Is it possible to use the HCR-20 V2 to assess the risk of violent recidivism of French offenders?

Figures & data

Table 1. A verage scores on HCR-20 and LS/CMI. (N = 128)

Scale	Score^a
	Mean	SD	Median	Min	Max
HCR-20
Total score	14.21	6.77	14	0	28
Historical	7.17	4.56	6	0	17
Clinical	3.19	2.00	3	0	8
Risk	3.84	1.92	4	0	9
Risk levels
Low	91 (71.1%)
Moderate	37 (28.9%)
High	0 (0)
LS/CMI
Total score	16.76	7.21	16	3	34
Criminal history	3.73	1.99	4	0	8
Education and Employment	3.45	2.54	3	0	9
Family/marital	2.22	1.49	2	0	13
Leisure and Recreational Activities	2.85	0.76	3	0	4
Companions	0.77	0.75	1	0	2
Drug or alcohol problems	1.44	0.76	1	0	8
Pro-criminal attitude or orientation	1.22	1.03	1	0	4
Type of antisocial behaviour	1.15	1.09	1	0	4
Risk levels
Very low	0 (0)
Low	30 (23.4%)
Moderate	52 (40.6%)
High	40 (31.3%)
Very high	6 (4.7%)

HCR-20: Historical-Clinical-Risk Management Scale-20; LS/CMI: Level of Service/Case Management Inventory.

^aScores of Risk levels are presented as percentage in parentheses.

Table 2. Inter-rater reliability and internal consistency of the HCR-20 and LS/CMI.

	Inter-rater reliability		Internal consistency
Scale	Spearman’s correlations (ρ)		Intra-group index (ICC)	Cronbach alpha (α)
HCR-20
Total score	0.93**		0.96	0.79
Historical	0.99**		0.99	0.80
Clinical	0.73*		0.80	0.48
Risk	0.64*		0.76	0.29
LS/CMI
Total score	0.84**		0.88	0.72

*P < 0.05; **P < 0.01.

HCR-20: Historical-Clinical-Risk Management Scale-20; LS/CMI: Level of Service/Case Management Inventory.

Table 3. Comparison of HCR-20 averages between a French and a Belgian sample.

	French sample (N = 128)	Belgian sample (N = 202)
	Mean (SD)	Mean (SD)	Cohen’s d	Coefficient r
Total score	14.21 (6.78)	23.30 (6.31)	−1.39	−0.57
Historical	7.17 (4.56)	12.40 (3.76)	−1.25	−0.53
Clinical	3.19 (2.00)	4.95 (2.22)	−0.83	−0.38
Risk	3.84 (1.92)	6.02 (1.99)	−1.12	−0.49
Age	44.16 (12.30)	36.71 (16.28)	0.52	0.25

HCR-20: Historical-Clinical-Risk Management Scale-20.

Table 4. Point-biserial correlation coefficients with Bonferroni correction between HCR-20 scores and type of offence.

Type of offence	HCR-20
	Number of offence	Total score	Historical	Clinical	Risk
Sexual offences
Rape	60	−0.05	−0.03	0.12	0.03
Sexual assault	43	−0.34**	−0.33**	−0.24**	−0.12
Sexual exhibition	1	0.10	0.08	0.12	0.08
Violent offences
Homicide	23	−0.07	−0.09	−0.06	−0.03
Assault and battery	35	0.25**	0.26**	0.32**	−0.05
Kidnapping and false imprisonment	5	0.10	0.06	0.16	0.03
Arson	2	0.08	−0.02	0.17	0.12
Non-violent offences
Simple and aggravated theft	6	0.26**	0.29**	0.14	0.03
Drug offences	3	0.11	0.09	0.14	0.02
Possession of weapons	2	0.08	0.04	0.14	−0.01
Traffic offence	1	−0.14	−0.11	−0.06	−0.15

**P < 0.01.

HCR-20: Historical-Clinical-Risk Management Scale-20.

Figure 1. Cattell’s Elbow of the Exploratory Factor Analysis of the HCR-20.

HCR-20: Historical-Clinical-Risk Management Scale-20.

Table 5. Exploratory factor analysis of the HCR-20.

	Rotation of the component matrix
Factors loading >0.40	“Historical” subscale	“Clinical” subscale	“Social” subscale
Personality disorder (H9)	0.78
Impulsivity (C4)	0.75
Previous violence (H1)	0.73
Early maladjustment (H8)	0.71
First violence at young age (H2)	0.67
Prior supervision failure (H10)	0.61
Employment (H4)	0.60
Substance abuse (H5)	0.46
Disease symptoms (C3)		−0.64
Mental illness (H6)		−0.56
Stress (R5)		−0.44
Non-compliance with treatment measures (R4)		0.55
Introspection (C1)		0.60
Treatment resistance (C5)		0.62
Negative attitudes (C2)		0.41
Destabilizing factors (R2)			0.66
Personal support (R3)			0.66
Intimate relationships (H3)			0.42
Unrealistic plans (R1)	–	–	–
Explained variance (%)	23.70	12.08	7.84
Cronbach’s alpha coefficients	0.83	0.61	0.45

The letters and numbers in brackets correspond to the names of the items. HCR-20: Historical-Clinical-Risk Management Scale-20; H: historical; C: clinical; R: risk.