The Quantitative Assessment of Violence in Adult and Young Offenders

Abstract

The reliability and validity of a method of estimating violent behaviour at an interview is explored and discussed. Methods of studying violent behaviour have tended at one extreme to be by analysis of official statistics and at the other by a non-quantitative casework style of approach to the individual offender. Attempts to measure violent behaviour from interview accounts have been far less frequent and the present paper describes the use of this method in groups of men in prison and boys in Borstal.