Coming out of 2022, public safety organizations must examine internal and external factors that could greatly affect their operations. What are the emerging trends and needs in public safety? What can organizations do to support these critical issues? Here are the five trends we predict will be significant focus areas...
Due to its role in informing parole and probation decisions, the use of professional judgment or overrides in risk/needs assessment and management can become scrutinized after tragic and violent events. What is a risk/needs assessment? Why do assessors override risk assessment scores? Is the use of this override common? What does...
Many public safety organizations around the world use Offender Management Systems (OMSs) to access public and private data, including arrest events, custody data, dispositions, and prosecutor data. Keeping communities safe and providing positive outcomes requires probation and parole officers to access the histories of those within the system. An OMS is...
Individuals with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) may deal with symptoms such as inattention, disorganization, hyperactivity (often seen as restlessness in adults), and/or impulsivity. Symptoms of ADHD often continue into adulthood, causing challenges in social, academic, and professional functioning (American Psychiatric Association, 2022). Research suggests that ADHD occurs in most cultures in...
Understanding performance validity is important any time maximum performance tests are used (e.g., tests of intelligence, aptitude, achievement, and/or neuropsychological performance). Knowing if a child or adolescent has given their best effort during assessment is critical to the accuracy of test score interpretation. This need has long been recognized in...
Emotional exhaustion or burnout experienced due to work overload harms employees and the organizations that employ them (Lin, 2013). As Maslach and Leiter (2008) pointed out, emotional "...exhaustion is not something that is simply experienced… it prompts actions to distance oneself emotionally and cognitively from one's work, presumably as a...
There has been an explosion of research connecting the experience of trauma, particularly complex or multiple traumas with a risk for criminal behavior (Vitopoulos et al., 2019). The current research on trauma and criminal behavior point to early childhood trauma, particularly maltreatment in childhood, as defining the difference between adolescents...
The use of pre-trial risk assessment tools around the world is widespread. In fact, risk/needs assessments are mandatory for sentencing in the adult system within 20 U.S. states. Since the use of these tools is so common, questioning the potential of their impact in creating racial disparity within the justice...
