Predicting institutional misconduct using the Youth Level of Service/ Case Management Inventory

Offender assessment in corrections has advanced considerably over the last several decades. Currently, it is not uncommon to find correctional professionals using any number of objective standardized assessment instruments. While many of these instruments possess face validity as well as statistical predictive validity, more work is needed to test classification protocol on new populations, and in various correctional environments. The current paper investigates the predictive validity of the Youth Level of Service/Case Management Inventory (YLS/CMI) within an institutional setting. Specifically, the composite score rendered from the YLS/CMI is used to predict institutional misconduct. The YLS/ CMI was found to effectively differentiate between two levels of offender risk/ need, and was significantly related to outcome using several different statistical techniques.     

Are Developmental Processes Affected by Immigration? Family Processes, Internalizing Behaviors, and Externalizing Behaviors

The current study compared levels of family processes, internalizing behaviors, and externalizing behaviors as well as developmental processes, namely the associations among family processes and measures of internalizing or externalizing behaviors, in native Swiss, 2nd and 1st generation immigrant adolescents (N=3,540). Findings provided evidence that both 2nd and 1st generation immigrant youth experienced higher rates of internalizing symptoms (depression and anxiety) than native Swiss youth. Comparisons of how individual family processes were associated with internalizing and externalizing behaviors provided evidence of few differences across groups. Thus, developmental processes were largely invariant by immigrant status. Although the immigration process may increase the risk for internalizing and some externalizing behaviors, it does not seem to affect how key family processes are associated with measures of adolescent adjustment.Professor of Human Development and Family Studies at Auburn University. His research interests include etiological risk factors in adolescent problem behaviors, deviance, and delinquency, criminological theory, and the cross-cultural/cross-national comparative method in the study of human development and behavior. Some of his recent publications have appeared in the Journal of Research on Adolescence, Journal of Quantitative Criminology, and Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency. Vazsonyi is the editor of The Journal of Early Adolescence and an editor of the forthcoming Cambridge Handbook of Violent Behavior. Doctoral student in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies at Auburn University. Her current interests include the importance of parenting and family processes on the etiology of internalizing and externalizing behaviors as well as risky sexual behaviors in youth, with a particular emphasis on Hispanic immigrant populations.Doctoral student in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies at Auburn University. Her current interests include criminological theory and the etiology of crime and deviance. She is particularly interested in the emerging problems related to crime and deviance in China.