OBJECTIVE Identification and implementation of effective methods for reducing racial/ethnic bias and disparities in legal settings are paramount in the United States and other countries. One procedure originally thought to reduce bias in legal decisions is the use of risk assessment instruments, which is now being heavily scrutinized. Measurement invariance, a latent trait technique, is a robust method for assessing one form of bias. Measurement invariance involves determining whether risk items in an instrument appear to be functioning the same between racial or other groups. Thus, the present study examined measurement invariance of the Structured Assessment of Violence Risk in Youth (SAVRY) between non-Latino Black and White youths to examine racial bias. HYPOTHESES We expected the SAVRY to be invariant (lacking measurement bias) between Black and White youths. METHOD The sample included 687 Black and 361 White youths, and the study used a large, multistate data set of SAVRYs conducted by probation officers. We conducted measurement invariance testing in a series of hierarchical steps including testing configural and scalar invariance. RESULTS The SAVRY demonstrated scalar invariance (equal thresholds for ratings from "low" to "moderate" and "moderate" to "high") for all items except one-community disorganization. CONCLUSIONS The findings lend further credibility to the SAVRY, and the structured professional judgment approach, as a method to assess violence risk and case planning needs among youths involved in the legal system. These findings provide more confidence that significant differences in SAVRY risk level or items between Black and White youths are not based in measurement bias, with the exception of the community disorganization item. Potential fixes discussed include eliminating or deemphasizing this item in final risk level ratings. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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对青少年暴力风险的结构化评估表明，黑人和白人司法介入青少年之间的测量不变性。


目的 在美国和其他国家，确定和实施减少法律环境中的种族/民族偏见和差异的有效方法至关重要。最初被认为可以减少法律决策中偏见的一个程序是使用风险评估工具，现在它正受到严格审查。测量不变性是一种潜在特征技术，是评估一种形式偏差的可靠方法。测量不变性涉及确定工具中的风险项目在种族或其他群体之间是否似乎功能相同。因此，本研究检查了非拉丁裔黑人和白人青年之间青少年暴力风险结构化评估 （SAVRY） 的测量不变性，以检查种族偏见。假设 我们预计 SAVRY 在黑人和白人青年之间是不变的（缺乏测量偏倚）。方法 样本包括 687 名黑人青年和 361 名白人青年，该研究使用了由缓刑官员进行的大型多州 SAVRY 数据集。我们在一系列分层步骤中进行了测量不变性测试，包括测试配置和标量不变性。结果 SAVRY 证明了除单社区无组织外的所有项目的标量不变性 （从“低”到“中等”和“中等”到“高”的评级阈值相等）。结论 这些发现进一步证明了 SAVRY 和结构化的专业判断方法作为评估参与法律系统的青少年的暴力风险和案件规划需求的方法。这些发现提供了更多的信心，即黑人和白人青年之间 SAVRY 风险水平或项目的显着差异不是基于测量偏倚，社区杂乱项目除外。 讨论的潜在修复方法包括在最终风险级别评级中消除或取消强调此项目。（PsycInfo 数据库记录 （c） 2024 APA，保留所有权利）。