Risk profiles in a Spanish sample of juvenile offenders: implications for risk assessment and management

Risk assessment instruments are designed to help juvenile justice practitioners in decision-making and intervention planning. Previous findings showed that a cumulative risk would be useful in predicting reoffending, whereas a person-centered approach would be more appropriate for risk management and intervention development. Thus, the goal of the current study was to identify risk profiles of juvenile offenders based on the scores obtained in the eight factors assessed by the Youth Level of Service/Case Management Inventory (YLS/CMI) and analyze how they differ in a set of youth demographic factors. The sample was composed of 334 young offenders, 77.2% males, aged 14-21 (M = 16.96; SD = 1.35). The results showed a better fit for the four-class solution, which classified individuals into four different profiles according to their scores on the YLS/CMI: low-needs, antisocial/peers, psychosocial and high-needs. Differences among subgroups were found in terms of gender, age, type of offense and juvenile justice measure. Males were overrepresented in the antisocial/peers and the high-needs groups, and both the low- and high-needs groups were composed by older youths. The identified profiles also differed in type of offenses and in juvenile justice measures. The implications of these results are discussed in terms of risk management.