Assessments Home > Ohio Risk Assessment System (ORAS) - Pretrial Assessment Tool (PAT)
Ohio Risk Assessment System (ORAS) - Pretrial Assessment Tool (PAT)
The Pretrial Assessment Tool (PAT) is a 7-item risk scale using a face-to-face interview format that is easy and fast to administer. It is intended to predict of both a defendant’s failure-to-appear and risk of violating pretrial probation with a new offense. The scale taps into three dimensions of risk: a) criminal history, b) employment and residential stability, and c) drug use). The scale can be completed in 10-15 minutes. Some questions during the interview must be verified through official records (i.e., criminal history variables, employment, etc). Cut-off scores effectively distinguish between low, medium, and high risk offenders with respect to the chance that they will violate conditions of pretrial supervision (Failure-to-Appear or new arrest). The pretrial assessment is intended to be used along with other scales used later in the criminal justice process, including the probation state, the intake-classification stage, and the community release stage. The manual suggests that the interviewee to take their time and use effective interviewing techniques, to probe the offender and allow him or her to talk freely, and to verify information where possible. The Pretrial Assessment Tool is positively related with recidivism (r = 0.23) with higher scores indicating higher risk of violations. The domain of criminal history appears to be the most sensitive at identifying offenders at high risk of recidivating.
Sources
Latessa, E., Smith, P., Lemke R., Makarios M., Lowenkamp, C. 2009. Creation and Validation of the Ohio Risk Assessment System: Final Report. University of Cincinnati School of Criminal Justice Center for Criminal Justice Research.