The Strengths/Structured Assessment for Youth (S/SAY): the strengts interest within a reoffending risk assessment tool

The assessment and intervention of justice-involved youth in order to their social
reintegration is a central aim of juvenile justice. Currently, assessment focuses on the
prediction of recidivism by mainly examining risk factors through the Risk-Need-
Responsivity (RBR) model. In French-speaking Belgium, the University of Liege has been
working on integrating strengths alongside risk factors in the assessment of justiceinvolved
youth within S/SAY (Strengths/Structured Assessment for Youth). A strength is
defined as the adolescent’s internal or external capacities that enable them to meet their
life goals in a prosocial manner, whereas the assessment of risk factors is based on the
classic YLS-CMI assessment adapted to Belgian justice-involved youth. First, we will
outline the conceptual distinction between a protective factor and a strength. We will
discuss this distinction in terms of their definition, operationalisations, and mechanisms.
Second, we will present S/SAY and emphasise its specificities. Third, we will present the
research protocol and design, as well as the methodology for evaluating the psychometric
qualities of S/SAY. Thus, on two settings (one in Quebec and the other in Belgium), the
goals of reliability (the consistency of the S/SAY items and indicators scores), predictive
validity (associated with the reoffending risk) and incremental validity (the added value
associated with the addition of strengths), but also social validity (the perception that
social workers have of the S/SAY use) will be presented. This research protocol combines
mixed data and two types of samples: the first one is composed of justice-involved youth’s
files (girls and boys) who are prosecuted for an offense, the second one is composed of
social workers using S/SAY (social workers in juvenile detention centres for Belgium and
probation officers for Quebec). Finally, this poster will discuss the implications of a partly
strength-based assessment in the management of justice-involved youth.