{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,7,3]],"date-time":"2025-07-03T14:49:41Z","timestamp":1751554181322},"reference-count":20,"publisher":"Wiley","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,3,25]],"date-time":"2020-03-25T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1585094400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/termsAndConditions#vor"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["onlinelibrary.wiley.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Behavioral Sci &amp; The Law"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2020,5]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>As criminal justice actors increasingly seek to rely on more evidence\u2010informed practices, including risk assessment instruments, they often lack adequate information about the evidence that informed the development of the practice or the tool. Open science practices, including making scientific research and data accessible and public, have not typically been followed in the development of tools designed for law enforcement, judges, probation, and others. This is in contrast to other government agencies, which often open their processes to public notice and comment. Lack of transparency has become pressing in the area of risk assessment, as entire judicial systems have adopted some type of risk assessment scheme. While the types of information used in a risk tool may be made public, often the underlying methods, validation data, and studies are not \u2013 nor are the assumptions behind how a level of risk gets categorized as \u201chigh\u201d or \u201clow.\u201d We discuss why those concerns are relevant and important to the new risk assessment tool now being used in federal prisons, as part of the First Step Act. We conclude that a number of key assumptions and policy choices made in the design of that tool are not verifiable or are inadequately supported, including the choice of risk thresholds and the validation data itself. Unfortunately, as a result, the federal risk assessment effort has not been the hoped\u2010for model for open risk assessment.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1002\/bsl.2455","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,3,25]],"date-time":"2020-03-25T08:35:44Z","timestamp":1585125344000},"page":"279-286","update-policy":"http:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.1002\/crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":4,"title":["Open risk assessment"],"prefix":"10.1002","volume":"38","author":[{"given":"Brandon L.","family":"Garrett","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Duke University School of Law  Durham NC 27708 USA"},{"name":"Duke University  Durham NC 27708 USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Megan","family":"Stevenson","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Antonin Scalia School of Law, George Mason University  Arlington VA 22201 USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"311","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,3,25]]},"reference":[{"key":"e_1_2_7_2_1","unstructured":"American Statistical Association. (2019).Position on Statistical Statements for Forensic Evidence athttps:\/\/www.amstat.org\/asa\/files\/pdfs\/POL-ForensicScience.pdf."},{"key":"e_1_2_7_3_1","volume-title":"Felony Defendants in Large Urban Counties, 2006, Bulletin","author":"Cohen T. H.","year":"2010"},{"key":"e_1_2_7_4_1","unstructured":"Desmarais S. L. &Lowder E. M. (2019).Pretrial Risk Assessment Tools: A Primer for Judges Prosecutors and Defense Attorneys. SAFETY AND JUSTICE CHALLENGE 4."},{"key":"e_1_2_7_5_1","unstructured":"FIRST STEP Act of 2018. (2018).115 P.L. 391 \u00a7 104(a)."},{"key":"e_1_2_7_6_1","first-page":"121","article-title":"Federal Criminal Risk Assessment","volume":"41","author":"Garrett B. L.","year":"2020","journal-title":"Cardozo Law Review"},{"key":"e_1_2_7_7_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/0093854819842589"},{"key":"e_1_2_7_8_1","unstructured":"Garrett B. L. &Stevenson M.2019.Comment on PATTERN athttps:\/\/sites.law.duke.edu\/justsciencelab\/2019\/09\/15\/comment-on-pattern-by-brandon-l-garrett-megan-t-stevenson\/."},{"key":"e_1_2_7_9_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1002\/bsl.2380"},{"key":"e_1_2_7_10_1","first-page":"1648","article-title":"The High Stakes of Low\u2010Level Criminal Justice: Misdemeanorland: Criminal Courts and Social Control in an Age of Broken Windows Policing","volume":"128","author":"Natapoff A.","year":"2019","journal-title":"The Yale Law Journal"},{"key":"e_1_2_7_11_1","unstructured":"NAT'L INST. OF STANDARDS AND TECH. (2012).Special Publ'n Guide for Conducting Risk Assessments https:\/\/nvlpubs.nist.gov\/nistpubs\/Legacy\/SP\/nistspecialpublication800-30r1.pdf"},{"key":"e_1_2_7_12_1","volume-title":"RISK ASSESSMENT IN THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT: MANAGING THE PROCESS","author":"NAT'L RESEARCH COUNCIL","year":"1984"},{"key":"e_1_2_7_13_1","unstructured":"President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology Report. (2016).Forensic Science in Criminal Courts: Ensuring Scientific Validity of Feature\u2010Comparison Methods."},{"key":"e_1_2_7_14_1","unstructured":"Press Release. (2020).Department of Justice Announces Enhancements to the Risk Assessment System and Updates on First Step Act Implementation January 15 2020 athttps:\/\/www.justice.gov\/opa\/pr\/department-justice-announces-enhancements-risk-assessment-system-and-updates-first-step-act."},{"issue":"2","key":"e_1_2_7_15_1","article-title":"The Rising Federal Pretrial Detention Rate, in Context","volume":"82","author":"Rowland M. G.","year":"2018","journal-title":"Federal Probation Journal"},{"key":"e_1_2_7_16_1","unstructured":"State v. Loomis. (2016).881 N.W.2d2d 749 (Wis. 2016)"},{"key":"e_1_2_7_17_1","first-page":"731","article-title":"The Scale of Misdemeanor Justice","volume":"98","author":"Stevenson M. T.","year":"2018","journal-title":"Boston University Law Review"},{"key":"e_1_2_7_18_1","unstructured":"The American Federation of Government Employees AFL\u2010CIO & Council of Prison Locals. (2018).Letter to Chairman Grassley Ranking Member Feinstein Chairman Goodlatte Ranking Member Nadler and Senator Durbin (May 8 2018)."},{"key":"e_1_2_7_19_1","unstructured":"U.S. Department of Justice. (2019).The First Step Act of 2018: Risk and Needs Assessment System."},{"key":"e_1_2_7_20_1","unstructured":"U.S. Department of Justice Office of Inspector General. (2016).AUDIT OF FEDERAL BUREAU OF PRISONS'MANAGEMENT OF INMATE PLACEMENTS IN RESIDENTIAL REENTRY CENTERS AND HOME CONFINEMENT https:\/ \/oig.justice.gov\/reports\/2016\/a1701.pdf."},{"key":"e_1_2_7_21_1","unstructured":"U.S. DEP'T JUSTICE. (2020).THE FIRST STEP ACT OF 2018: RISK AND NEEDS ASSESSMENT SYSTEM: UPDATE athttps:\/\/nij.ojp.gov\/sites\/g\/files\/xyckuh171\/files\/media\/document\/the-first-step-act-of-2018-risk-and-needs-assessment-system-updated.pdf."}],"container-title":["Behavioral Sciences &amp; the Law"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/api.wiley.com\/onlinelibrary\/tdm\/v1\/articles\/10.1002%2Fbsl.2455","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/pdf\/10.1002\/bsl.2455","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/full-xml\/10.1002\/bsl.2455","content-type":"application\/xml","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/pdf\/10.1002\/bsl.2455","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2023,9,6]],"date-time":"2023-09-06T07:14:52Z","timestamp":1693984492000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/10.1002\/bsl.2455"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2020,3,25]]},"references-count":20,"journal-issue":{"issue":"3","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2020,5]]}},"alternative-id":["10.1002\/bsl.2455"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1002\/bsl.2455","archive":["Portico"],"relation":{},"ISSN":["0735-3936","1099-0798"],"issn-type":[{"value":"0735-3936","type":"print"},{"value":"1099-0798","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2020,3,25]]},"assertion":[{"value":"2020-02-22","order":0,"name":"received","label":"Received","group":{"name":"publication_history","label":"Publication History"}},{"value":"2020-02-24","order":1,"name":"accepted","label":"Accepted","group":{"name":"publication_history","label":"Publication History"}},{"value":"2020-03-25","order":2,"name":"published","label":"Published","group":{"name":"publication_history","label":"Publication History"}}]}}