Validating the Spousal Assault Risk Assessment-Version 2 (SARA-V2) Guide with Indigenous men supervised by British Columbia Corrections

The over-representation of Indigenous individuals in the Canadian criminal legal system warrants examination of the cross-cultural validity of risk assessment tools used with this population (Ewert v. Canada, 2018). The Spousal Assault Risk Assessment Guide-Version 2 (SARA-V2; Kropp et al., 1995, 1999) is a Structured Professional Judgement (SPJ) tool widely used to measure risk for Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) among adult males (Hanson et al., 2007). This study examined the predictive accuracy of the SARA for Indigenous (n = 3,188) and White (n = 6,550) individuals supervised by British Columbia Corrections. Overall, the SARA demonstrated significant, albeit not similar, predictive accuracy for the outcomes of domestic violent, violent, and any criminal recidivism across Indigenous and White subgroups. Effect sizes were generally in the trivial to moderate range. A pattern of lower predictive accuracy for Indigenous individuals was observed, suggesting the need to re-examine the utility of some of the SARA items for this population. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.