Creation and Validation of an Inmate Risk Assessment for Violent, Nonsexual Victimization

Abstract

Recent prison studies have identified several factors associated with the odds of both committing and being victimized by inmate violence. Toward the end of developing an instrument for assessing an inmate’s risk of violent, nonsexual victimization, we examined predictors of victimization grounded in extant studies of the topic. The sample included 12,024 adult male inmates. Using a 25% random sample of these inmates, a risk assessment instrument was created to predict the likelihood of violent, nonsexual victimization during incarceration (the Inmate Risk Assessment for Violent Nonsexual Victimization [RVNSV]). The RVNSV was validated on the three additional random subsamples of inmates. Bivariate and multivariate analyses confirm the RVNSV as a valid predictor of institutional violent, nonsexual victimization. These findings support the further exploration of prison risk assessment tools that use measures of victimization as dependent variables.

Keywords:

• prison violence
• violent victimization
• risk assessment