Research Department

Information about our actuarial instruments (VRAG/SORAG) for the assessment of violence risk

 Click here to read a brief summary of this work.

 The first publication arising from this line of research was:

Harris, G.T., Rice, M.E., & Quinsey, V.L. (1993). Violent recidivism of mentally disordered offenders: The development of a statistical prediction instrument. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 20, 315-335.

This article described the development of the Violence Risk Appraisal Guide (VRAG) though that name was not applied until two years later.

Subsequently, we described, extended, and replicated our findings in:

Rice, M.E., & Harris, G.T. (1995). Violent recidivism: Assessing predictive validity. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 63, 737-748.

Rice, M.E., & Harris, G.T. (1997). Cross validation and extension of the Violence Risk Appraisal Guide for child molesters and rapists. Law and Human Behavior, 21, 231-241.

Harris, G.T., Rice, M.E., & Cormier, C.A. (2002). Prospective replication of the Violence Risk Appraisal Guide in predicting violent recidivism among forensic patients. Law and Human Behavior, 26, 377-394.

Rice, M.E. & Harris, G.T. (2002). Men who molest their sexually immature daughters: Is a special explanation required? Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 111, 329-339.

Harris, G.T. & Rice, M.E. (2003). Actuarial assessment of risk among sex offenders. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 989, 198-210.

Harris, G.T., Rice, M.E., Quinsey, V.L., Lalumière, M.L., Boer, D., & Lang, C. (2003). A multi-site comparison of actuarial risk instruments for sex offenders. Psychological Assessment, 15, 413-425.

Harris, G.T., Rice, M.E., & Camilleri, J.A. (2004). Applying a forensic actuarial assessment (the Violence Risk Appraisal Guide) to nonforensic patients. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 19, 1063-1074.

Rice, M.E. & Harris, G.T. (2005). Comparing effect sizes in follow-up studies: ROC, Cohen's d and r. Law and Human Behavior, 29, 615-620.

Rice, M.E., Harris, G.T., Lang, C., & Cormier, C.A. (2006). Violent sex offenses: How are they best measured from official records? Law and Human Behavior, 30, 525-541.

Harris, G.T. & Rice, M.E. (2007). Adjusting actuarial violence risk assessments based on aging and the passage of time. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 34, 297-313.

Harris, G.T. & Rice, M.E. (2007). Characterizing the value of actuarial violence risk assessment. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 34, 1638-1656.

Harris, G.T., Rice, M.E., & Quinsey, V.L. (2008). Shall evidence-based risk assessment be abandoned? British Journal of Psychiatry, 192, 154.

Rice, M.E., Harris, G.T., & Hilton, N.Z. (in press). The Violence Risk Appraisal Guide and Sex Offender Risk Appraisal Guide for violence risk assessment and the Ontario Domestic Assault Risk Assessment and Domestic Violence Risk Appraisal Guide for wife assault risk assessment. In R. Otto and K. Douglas (Eds.) Handbook of violence risk assessment tools. Oxford, UK: Routledge/Taylor & Francis.

Harris, G.T. & Rice, M.E. (in press). Sex Offender Assessment. In B.L. Cutler (Ed.). The Encyclopedia of Psychology and Law. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Quinsey, V.L. (in press). The Sex Offender Risk Appraisal Guide. In B.L. Cutler (Ed.). The Encyclopedia of Psychology and Law. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Rice, M.E. & Harris, G.T. (in press). The Violence Risk Appraisal Guide. In B.L. Cutler (Ed.). The Encyclopedia of Psychology and Law. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

 This work is most fully described in a recent book:

Quinsey, V.L., Harris, G.T., Rice, M.E., & Cormier, C.A. (2006). Violent offenders: Appraising and managing risk (Second Edition). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Information about the book and how to purchase it is available here.