The SAPROF (''Structured Assessment of PROtective Factors for violence risk'') is a structured professional judgment (SPJ) tool developed to assess the
protective factor
Protective factors are conditions or attributes (skills, strengths, resources, supports or coping strategies) in individuals, families, communities or the larger society that help people deal more effectively with stressful events and mitigate or ...
s for violence risk in adult offenders. The tool complements other risk assessment and actuarial tools used to assess the risk of future violent behaviour.
Development
SAPROF was developed in the Netherlands in 2007 as an instrument for the structured assessment of protective factors for violence risk. Following the structured professional judgment model, the SAPROF was designed as a positive addition to other SPJ
risk assessment
Risk assessment is a process for identifying hazards, potential (future) events which may negatively impact on individuals, assets, and/or the environment because of those hazards, their likelihood and consequences, and actions which can mitigate ...
tools, such as the HCR-20, which at the time was considered the most widely used tool for structured professional judgement.
Frequent users of the SAPROF in
forensic psychiatry
Forensic psychiatry is a subspecialty of psychiatry and is related to criminology. It encompasses the interface between law and psychiatry. According to the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, it is defined as "a subspecialty of psychiatr ...
state that the instrument can be helpful in formulating treatment goals, justifying stages of treatment, atoning treatment phasing and facilitating
risk communication Risk communication is a complex cross-disciplinary academic field that is part of risk management and related to fields like crisis communication. The goal is to make sure that targeted audiences understand how risks affect them or their communities ...
.
Vivienne de Vogel, Corine de Ruiter, Yvonne Bouman and Michiel de Vries Robbé originally developed the SAPROF in Dutch in 2007, later translated to English and German.
The first study demonstrating predictive validity of the SAPROF was published in 2011.
A 2023 review including 39 articles with 5,434 subjects from 16 countries found that the SAPROF "showed good
interrater reliability and moderate-to-good
predictive performance for the absence of
recidivism
Recidivism (; from 'recurring', derived from 'again' and 'to fall') is the act of a person repeating an undesirable behavior after they have experienced negative consequences of that behavior, or have been trained to Extinction (psycholo ...
and institutional misconduct".
References
{{Reflist
External links
Tool website
Mental disorders screening and assessment tools