Psychological assessment for adult sentencing of juvenile offenders: an evaluation of the RSTI and the SAVRY.

Two measures relevant to the assessment of juvenile offenders for transfer to adult court, the Risk-Sophistication-Treatment Inventory (RSTI) and the Structured Assessment of Violence Risk in Youth (SAVRY), were evaluated in the present study. Seventy-four adolescents considered for transfer were scored on these tools using file information, and clinicians’ transfer reports were coded for judgments of risk, maturity, and treatment amenability. The RSTI Risk, Criminal Sophistication, and Treatment Amenability scales and the SAVRY Total and Protective scales predicted an adult sentence. Further, with the exception of the RSTI Risk and SAVRY Total, these scales provided incremental validity in the prediction of adult sentences beyond other legal criteria. However, the RSTI Sophistication-Maturity scale did not predict an adult sentence. Results provide support for the use of the RSTI and the SAVRY, underscore the potential importance of psychological characteristics to adult sentencing decisions, and reflect challenges inherent in psycho-legal assessments of maturity.