Structured Assessment of Violence Risk in Youth™ (SAVRY™)

With its emphasis on dynamic factors, the SAVRY is designed to be useful in intervention planning and ongoing progress monitoring, including the formulation of clinical treatment plans, conditions of community supervision, or release/discharge

The SAVRY is composed of 24 items in three risk domains (Historical Risk Factors, Social/Contextual Risk Factors, and Individual/Clinical Factors), drawn from existing research and the professional literature on adolescent development as well as on violence and aggression in youth. Not designed to be a formal test or scale, there are no assigned numerical values nor are there any specified cutoff scores. Based on the structured professional judgment (SPJ) model, the SAVRY helps you structure an assessment so that important factors will be emphasized when you formulate a final professional judgment about a youth’s level of risk. The primary domains of known risk and protective factors are addressed, with clear operational definitions provided. Risk and protective factors are based on their relationship to adolescents—not to children or adults.

•  Each risk item has a three-level rating structure with specific rating guidelines.
• Six protective factor items are rated as either present or absent.
• Both reactive and proactive aggression—aggression subtypes that are extensively theoretically supported—are emphasized.
• Items have direct implications for treatment, including the consideration of dynamic factors that can be useful targets for intervention in risk reduction.