Judges' Risk Communication Preferences in Risk for Future Violence Cases

Abstract

The current study examined which types of risk communication messages and combinations of messages judges find most helpful in making decisions about risk for future violence. Seventy six judges from three Southern states responded to a mail survey asking them to rate the probative value of categorical, frequency, and probabilistic risk communication messages. An additional 40 judges completed the survey at a judicial conference. Approximately half of the judges made probative ratings for a high risk patient, while the remaining judges made ratings for a lower risk patient. Overall, the judges gave higher probative value ratings to the categorical risk message and reported that a combination of categorical and numerical messages would be most useful. Judges in the high risk condition were significantly more likely than those assigned to the low risk condition to rate the risk message as probative, regardless of the way in which it was communicated.