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Abstract

As Ohio began to address the gaps in delivering effective juvenile justice programming in the state, it recognized that a statewide risk assessment system was needed. The Department of Youth Services (DYS) explored its options and determined that the best course of action was to develop a risk assessment prospectively to address the needs of youth across multiple stages of the juvenile justice system. DYS partnered with the University of Cincinnati Center for Criminal Justice Research (CCJR) to develop the Ohio Youth Assessment System (OYAS). The OYAS contains five tools: a diversion tool, a detention tool, a disposition tool, a residential tool, and a reentry tool. Each tool is used at the appropriate stage to assess the criminogenic needs of the youth at that stage and to help guide decisions for appropriate interventions. Results from receiver operating characteristics (ROC) analysis ranged from area under the curve (AUC) values of .611 on the diversion tool to .721 on the reentry tool, suggesting that the tools did reasonably well in placing a youth into appropriate risk categories compared to randomly selected cases. This article reviews the steps taken to develop, implement, and adopt a statewide risk assessment with fidelity.

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Creation and Validation of the Ohio Youth Assessment System (OYAS) and Strategies for Successful Implementation

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