Research Methodology

Methodology

LSI-R assessments archival from 2010 to 2016 were involved in the current study.  The data was retrieved from the management system of   offender’s information database from all the licensed departments within the state.  This was useful in increasing the required data for the study in general as information was sourced from the different databases in the context of female offenders. This utilized two significant criterion’s in the determination of whether LSI-R assessments has been involved in the studies.  This was conducted to ensure that the generated information was not characterized by biases or was not accurate (Stohr, Walsh, & Hemmens, 2012).  First, the offenders were identified to be serving  the community which implies that they were either  female  offenders on  probation or  on community services, custodial which is a representation of jail  and parole of the  general combination  of custodial  and  community  orders.  The second procedure was for the cases where the female offenders held more than single LSI-R evaluations every year, which for this study on the first LSI-R evaluation was being utilized for every offender that was being utilized.  This helped in ensuring  that there was no  occurrence of  overrepresentation of any score  or the occurrence  of a push  in the direction  of a specific mean driven by  offenders  who held more  than LSI-R evaluations  for each year as compared to others.  These criteria resulted in the development of a total of seventy thousand scores that were retrieved.  The  female offender's  age mean  by  their sentences order  amounted  to 30.9 years  with a standard deviation  that equaled  t 10.5 for the  female  community  offenders the number  representation being  40,000 and  years  deviation  being 33 years.   For the custodial offenders, they were represented by 10,000 with 25 years and a standard deviation of 8.5. For those that were serving both custodial and community offenses, the number was being represented by 20, 000, years deviation being 33 years. 

From the data that was acquired, it was clear that a huge range of offender’s conviction was very evident. With the  gender  close  combinations  and  orders  of sentences  for the  offenders  it was established that  the  most common  offenses  were  fraud.  This was thus represented by arranging of 38.5 and 70.7 percent from all the gathered cases.  This was followed  by  theft  which was represented  by  15 to 30 percent,  and  drug  possessions represented  by 10  to 12%  the possession of drugs  held the  least  percentage  as this offense is  bound to be much higher in male gender as  compared to females.

Measures

LSI-R is utilized   by the offend management department in the determination of the supervision level for all the individual offenders. LSI-R assessment results  additionally  offer support  to  the  federal and state  courts  as  a section of the advice  departmental  program  and a review of  critical offenders.  These  reports are thus useful  in  the provision of the  general mean  of determining  the  appropriate  treatment  of the specific  groups of female  and male offenders.  LSI-R is described as the integral section of   standard offenses assessment procedure with every consumer holding at least a single and a complete LSI-R in their offense file.

LSI-R is mainly  made up  of  ten different  subscales  these are education,  finance,  family, accommodation,  leisure, companions , alcohol or drugs issues,  personal  issues, attitudes, and  management  supervision.   This is connected to the obvious challenge that is mainly linked to definitions. First,  if  the female offender  repeats an offense In a much  different  location  this  occurrence is  not likely to be captured by  the  organization .  second  any existence of data  that  relates to fresh convictions  as  well  as  sentences  for instance  unsupervised bonds and fines  cannot  be captured  fully by the  search.  Re-offenses  was  assessed based  on  the initial  sentence registration  after  the completion of  all the existing  orders.  Across the general sample, the mean time data that was being utilized was as a range of 7 and 10 months.

Research Setting

The research opted to work on sentences on prison database setting based on the relation of the setting to offenses.  This setting thus provided a good opportunity for research through a thorough investigation in the prediction of the effectiveness LSI-R assesses nets in the predicted risk in female offenders.

Procedure

LSI-R protocols  were  completed  by  qualified  personals for instance  psychologists and parole officers who had previously  received adequate  training  and the access  to LSI-R modules.  The completed LSI-R evaluations  were  then  inspected  by the upper  supervisors  who held the position of agreeing  with  the existing  risk  rating  decision.  The   current  sample held the indication that  female offenders  across  all the assessed  sentences orders   had been overridden  at  a percent rate  of  between 13 and 16 percent  as  compared to the  male  offenders  who  were overused with a percent   that is  generally amid 12 a 15 percent.

Design and Method Analysis

The utilized normative information was generally made up of descriptive quantitative statistics due to the utility of meta-analysis study design.  This was conducted for   all the offenders on the organization of sentences orders as well as gender.  In the   determination of the specific profile needs the current study utilized multivariate analysis (Stohr, Walsh, & Hemmens, 2013).  The female offenders, sentences orders, and LSI-R scores correlations were mainly calculated with the utilization of point correlations bi-serials.  This was then followed by a logistic sequential regression in the investigation of LSI-R predictive utilization.  With the general  use  of the technique,  the initial step of the  multivariate  analysis  that  was used in  this study generated a method that  was essential in illustrating whether the variables  to control  were effective in  predicting  the  general  outcome which is female offenders risk (Ehrgott, Figueira, & Greco, 2010).  The study utilized the age was selected to act as a variable control in the study.  The second study analysis  involved LSI-R general  score  hat was included  in  the  generated model  through  utilization  of  the  original  research  variables (Ehrgott, Figueira, & Greco, 2010).  This was  additionally to  ascertain  on whether  the fresh variables  could in a significant   mode  assist in  adding to  the  predictions  which  had  thus been  developed  by the initial  study model (Harcourt, 2007). LSI-R subscores were utilized in the third level of multivariate analysis in the replacement of the LSI-R general scores in the determination of whether LSI-R predicts female’s offender's risk accurately.

This section covered the investigation part of the present study.  This is the section that was involved in the provision of solutions to the research question. Quantitative analysis reviews were utilized in order to increase efficiency and reliability of the research (Ehrgott, Figueira, & Greco, 2010). In addition, this method helped in acquiring increased data thus increasing the study’s credibility.

 

            References

Stohr, M. K., Walsh, A., & Hemmens, C. (2013). Corrections: A text/reader. Los Angeles: SAGE.

Harcourt, B. E. (2007). Against prediction: Profiling, policing, and punishing in an actuarial age. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Stohr, M. K., Walsh, A., & Hemmens, C. (2012). Corrections: A text/reader.

Ehrgott, M., Figueira, J., & Greco, S. (2010). Trends in multiple criteria decision analysis. New York: Springer.