Sistematización de la evaluación de riesgo de violencia con instrumentos de juicio profesional estructurado en Cuenca, Ecuador

Abstract

Objectives: To determine the reliability of the psychopathy evaluation instruments and structured professional guides in violence risk assessment used at the Institute of Criminology and Family Psychosocial Intervention of the University of Cuenca, Ecuador. Method: Previously trained pairs of psychologists and social workers assessed simultaneously 37 cases, who were transferred to the Institute, using structured violence risk assessment instruments -HCR 20 and SARA- and psychopathy evaluation instrument -Hare PCL-R-. Indicators of internal agreement and consistency were calculated. Results: The agreement of the assessment of the risk of violence towards the couple was excellent. The intraclass coefficient was respectively 0.76 and 0.90 for psychologists and social workers. The indicators for the different sections of the HCR-20 and SARA were also excellent, ranging between 0.75 and 0.94. The indicator for PCL-R total was 0.96. Conclusions: The results support the reliability of these instruments in Ecuador provided the users receive adequate training. The use of these instruments contributes to the systematization and transparency of the risk assessment procedures and the protection of the professional responsibility.