Exploring Rater Cultural Bias in Forensic Risk Assessment

Risk assessment instruments are an important tool for assessing an offender’s risk of recidivism. However, concerns have been raised regarding their applicability to different cultural groups, and it has been suggested that rater cultural bias may affect assessment. This study explored whether rater cultural bias impacted upon the scoring of the YLS/CMI-SRV and rater perceptions of offenders from diverse cultural backgrounds. Participants included a representative sample of postgraduate Australian Psychology students who were randomly assigned a vignette of a young offender from either a South Sudanese, Indigenous or Anglo-Australian background. No evidence of cultural bias was found in YLS/CMI-SRV scoring or rater perceptions of the offender.