Validity of the Youth Assessment and Screening Instrument

A Juvenile Justice Tool Incorporating Risks, Needs, and Strengths

Jones, Natalie J.
Brown, Shelley L.
Robinson, David
Frey, Deanna

Orbis Partners, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Department of Psychology, Carleton University
Orbis Partners, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Alberta Justice and Solicitor General, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Use of this dataset for research purposes was approved by Alberta Justice and Solicitor General. David Robinson is a co-owner of Orbis Partners, a company that provides the Youth Assessment and Screening Instrument as an assessment device to criminal justice clients.

Natalie J. Jones, Orbis Partners Inc., 5550 Manotick Main Street, Box 520, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K4M 1A5 [email protected]

Received January 22, 2015

revised October 28, 2015

Accepted October 29, 2015

Law & Human Behavior 40(2):p 182-194, April 2016. | DOI: 10.1037/lhb0000170

The primary purpose of this study is to introduce the Youth Assessment and Screening Instrument (YASI; ), which is a comprehensive assessment protocol gauging a range of risks, needs, and strengths associated with criminal conduct in juvenile populations. Applied to a sample of 464 juvenile offenders bound by community supervision in Alberta, Canada, the Pre-Screen version of the instrument achieved a high level of accuracy in predicting both general and violent offenses over an 18-month follow-up period (Area Under the Curve [AUC] = .79). No significant differences in overall predictive validity were found across demographic groups, save for the relatively lower level of accuracy achieved in predicting general reoffending across the subsample of girls (AUC = .68). With regard to strengths, a buffering effect was identified whereby high-risk cases with higher levels of strength had superior outcomes compared to their lower strength counterparts. Results suggest that it is advisable to consider the quantitative inclusion of strength-based items in the assessment of juvenile risk.